Into Darkest Night
by Icy the Frostbringer
Summary: With a fate undone, a New Moon has risen, from a comforting shadow, to a commanding position. On a world divided, in an empire fractured, they plot and scheme in the umbra thereafter. From this darkest night, this last time of peace, a storm is coming, with first light in the east. (Rise of a New Moon, Part 2)
1. Reaper

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.

This story is continued from Rise of a New Moon. If you have not already done so, please read that before continuing on here. You will be quite lost otherwise.

* * *

**2332 Hours, 31 August, 2017 ATB**

**Southern Shikoku, Area 11**

Shikoku was the smallest of the Japanese home islands included within Area 11, and it had the distinction of holding the smallest known sakuradite reserves in the chain. Honshu laid claim to most of it, especially in and around Fuji. Therefore, while Shikoku was a strategically significant territory for the defense of Honshu, most of the island had been ignored by the Britannians. There were several Britannian airfields, and a naval installation on the north end, along with most of the island's garrison forces, but little interest had been paid to the more remote sectors to the south and west.

Such was the case that Shikoku made the best place in Japan for a wanted man to stay free. At least, as free as you could be when hiding underground. This is what the Blood of the Samurai's once powerful leader had been reduced to, after their string of disastrous defeats in Tokyo, and across central Honshu.

The assassination of Prince Clovis by their fighters had brought about the exact opposite result that they had wanted. Instead of cutting the head off the snake, and watching the Britannians devour each other in the ensuing power vacuum left behind, they had unwittingly propelled Luna vi Britannia to the position of Viceroy of Area 11, and to effectively be the ruler of Japan. Along with the Imperial Japanese Army, her army that had once been the JLF, she had seized control of the country. The problem for the Blood of the Samurai was that instead of a divided enemy squabbling among themselves, they had ended up on the wrong end of a nominally unified Britannian colonial government with overwhelming military might that had wasted no time unleashing it upon them.

While conventional military force was largely to blame for the systematic annihilation of the Blood of the Samurai across most of the country, not every mission called for knightmare frames and battalions of infantry. Some required finesse; the application of a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer. This was one of those times.

Reaper 1-1 allowed faint grin to form beneath his face mask as he heard the go order finally come down through his earpiece. He slowly returned to verticality, making less noise than his own shadow as he got up off the ground. In a twenty meter radius around him, the other four members of his team replicated his action a moment later. The night was as dark as can be, with the combination of cloud cover and the remote location they happened to be in. Perfect for a quiet op.

The six men of the Reaper team began to move forward toward their first objective, a place that they had been covertly surveilling for over two days. Five minutes later they took up concealed positions only forty meters from the target. In front of them was a deceptively natural looking rock formation that appeared to be the entrance to a cave. The two armed men guarding the entrance gave the first hint that it was something more.

After their observation time, they knew that there were at least twelve hostiles that rotated on this guard duty assignment in eight hour shifts. The men themselves were Japanese, dressed in non uniform combat gear, and carried a variety of weapons that were mostly Britannian, Chinese or Chinese copies of Russian small arms, although one older guardsman was seen carrying a Type 64 battle rifle. From his age and gear, it was probable that he had been with the SDF during the invasion. A shame that he ended up here.

Standing before them now were two of the younger enemy fighters, armed with what appeared to be Chinese reproduction AK-101s; The Russians weren't exporting in this direction. As with the last five shifts before them, by this point they were getting bored and complacent with standing around in the dark. They had all the qualities of a good target.

Reaper 1-1 motioned to his team to get ready. As they complied, he raised his weapon, an integrally suppressed M7S SMG, and centered the holographic ring and dot, glowing green through his helmet's light amplification mode, on the right man's chin. He glanced over to see Reaper 1-3 doing the same. After a silent countdown from three, both weapons spit out a two round burst of 5mm caseless subsonic rounds. The pair of men on guard duty never even knew they were under attack before their skulls were quietly perforated. Going for headshots wasn't their standard procedure, but in this case it was the safer move, as even soft armor vests would have defeated the 5mm subsonics.

The M7 series was a strange line of guns of Britannian origin. Originally conceived of as a military and police weapon, the M7's proprietary 5mm caseless ammunition, tendency to overheat, and the possibility of unintentional discharge when a fresh round was loaded into a hot chamber, led to it failing trials for military adoption. Instead of giving up on the idea, the team behind the gun got to work modifying it extensively.

Taking the original design, the design team doubled the length of the barrel, installed an integral suppressor, and developed a closed loop liquid cooling system run by a recoil actuated pump to solve the weapon's heat issues. The result was the M7S, which was even more of an over engineered disaster from a military perspective. However, what they managed to actually create was one of the quietest guns ever built. It soon gained a cult following among special operations communities, as well as intelligence agencies and assassins due to its unparalleled silence and lack of brass to be left behind.

The team moved quickly now, albeit without increasing their noise by very much. Both bodies were quickly disarmed and searched, before being concealed a few meters away. Neither man had been wearing armor, but one did forget to engage the safety on his rifle, which would have made a non lethal hit on him into a serious threat if he discharged his unsuppressed weapon from a twitchy death. All of their weapons were rapidly unloaded, cleared, and placed next to the bodies. The blood would be impossible to hide, but it should be hours before anyone noticed. Plenty of time to get in and out.

A radio was all that the Reapers took from their first kills this night before they moved to enter the cave. Having watched the guard rotation optically, through a directional microphone, and radio interception, they knew the check in schedule, and what to say. Reaper 1-1 was confident that they could fake the next two check ins well enough to avoid detection. That would be more than enough time.

They moved into the cave carefully, having a vague idea of what was inside based on observed conversations between the guards, but no hard intel to pre plan their infiltration.

As they melded into the darkness within, each operator switched his helmet's visual settings from unfiltered transparency to IR overlay. Sensors built into the helmets replaced the need for more traditional tube style night vision systems, allowing them to retain the use of their weapons' regular optics.

Just as the transparent visor could be raised up into the helmet, so too did a second, opaque plate of matching shape mounted in front of it. When rotated down to cover the visor, the contoured screen on the inner face displayed the user's view in their alternate wavelength of choice. In this case, they traded visible light for the pale glow of infrared light. The technology was still a while away from general deployment, but so far it was very promising.

The first hundred meters or so consisted of unlit, natural rock tunnels into the mountain, with visibility of virtually nothing, except for the glow of the weapon mounted IR illuminator at the front of the stack. Then, with stark sharpness, the natural was replaced with the artificial. The rough tunnel opened up into a carved passageway, still made of the same rock, although precisely cut and flattened with mechanical precision.

Reaper 1-1 switched his visibility mode from IR to a mild visible light amplification setting, as the thin string of weak lights across the center of the ceiling gave the area a dim glow. The hallway was wide, and far from empty. Crates and boxes were spaced somewhat regularly within his line of sight, and the space was wide enough to comfortably drive a laden forklift through with plenty of room to spare on either side. He figured it was probably a supply corridor from the main surface entrance down into the underground base.

Turning left, the team made bounding movements, using what cover and concealment was available. Sixty meters further, a set of patrolling guards turned the corner to their front and began walking toward the team. The two new men did not seem to know that anything was wrong. They were moving at a leisurely pace, rifles slung, and seemingly unaware that the base was under attack.

As they neared, 1 and 3 pulled a repeat of their earlier performance and put two 5mm subsonics through each man's head, killing them so close to instantly that they wouldn't have even known it happened. Within moments of the bodies dropping, the team was working to conceal the kills. A box they were using as cover was quickly pried open, and the two dead men were left inside.

The team continued their infiltration into the base, leaving only minimal evidence in plain sight that they had been there. With the enemy's level of alertness and proficiency they had seen so far, there was nothing to worry about. They continued on mission.

* * *

A long hour of stealthy movement and one falsified radio check in later, the Reaper team had arrived at what they thought would be their target site. Underneath this seaside Shikoku mountain was a secret base. Construction of the facility had been started once upon a time by the Japanese military of old. Originally intended to be a secret submarine dock, the site was the victim of budgetary shifting and politics in the years before the invasion. The result was that while most of the excavation work had been completed, it was never brought into operation.

Being that the unfinished base was so secret that the Britannians completely missed it during the invasion and years since, it made a great fallback position for the remaining BOTS forces. Given the proximity to Chinese controlled Kyushu, few Britannian vessels, military or otherwise, came through the area. Thus, it was established as the primary supply and smuggling route from Kyushu to Kusakabe's remaining fanatics.

With the help of Atsushi Sawasaki, the regional governor of Kyushu for the Federation, three older Chinese submarines had been repurposed as covert cargo boats instead of going to the scrap yards. Making regular trips from Kyushu to Shikoku, they kept the Blood of the Samurai supplied with items that could not be easily smuggled by other means.

Thus, it was to the good fortune of the Reaper men that one such submarine had just arrived at the hidden dock within the mountain. Attention and focus was fixed on the boat, and the cargo within, which just happened to be almost on the other side of the cavernous room from where they were infiltrating.

Reaper 1-1 took a quick look around the facility, feeling a bit strange. He had spent a lot of time in places like this, albeit completed and well furnished, during his time in Hokkaido. Something in him just didn't like that the enemy was relying on the same kind of hidden bases that had saved the JLF from being hunted down and destroyed. He pushed that thought away; their helmets were recording, so he could study the place in detail at a later date.

The interior of the main facility was effectively a rectangular hollow within the mountain, with twelve large support columns spaced throughout. Roughly a third of the space was water directly connected to the sea outside via an underwater tunnel. Just beyond the docks where the single submarine was floating, a large warehouse made of what looked like low quality sheet metal covered much of the space. Beyond that were rows of rough looking barracks, and a few more well built structures against the western wall.

Making their way toward the built up section of the base was easier than anticipated. There was plenty of lighting at the docks and near the warehouse, courtesy of high powered work lights bathing the area in bright light. Good for the Reapers, since the setup had the effects of casting plenty of stark directional shadows, while simultaneously wrecking the night vision of anybody close to the docks. Professionals would have used much dimmer red lighting.

Moving rapidly through the shadows and between buildings, they encountered no further resistance as they went through the back of the barracks area. A quick glance inside two of the structures revealed plenty of figures occupying cots in their dark interiors. They would in all likelihood sleep through the team's activities completely unaware.

Approaching the structures, 1 got a sense that the building in front of him may have been an original, either for the construction crew or intended for the final MSDF submarine base. It was outwardly older and better made than anything else they had seen thus far.

Using a fibre optic snake camera, 1 and 3 each covertly checked a ground floor window. The snakes fed directly into a vision overlay inside the helmet, making it appear as if they actually had their heads up against the glass, slightly distorted, but more than good enough for this purpose. Satisfied that the bottom level was clear of hostiles, they prepared to breach.

Reaper 1-4 took position opposite from the main stack, and on command from 1, slowly turned the door handle. To their relief, it fully rotated and gently clicked open, no lock and no alarm. 1 took point and led the way into the building, M7S held in his right hand as he slowly palmed the door open with his left. He slowly, quietly, swept into the building. The men cleared the room, and several adjacent rooms, in under a minute. No contacts.

Ascending the stairs, they once again employed optical snake cameras to check around corners at the top. This time, there was a man to the left, facing away in a wooden chair. The other direction was clear. 1 raised his suppressed weapon and took careful aim. The man he was looking at had a rifle, but it was on a sling hanging from the back rest of the chair, not held in his hands. Still, he was going to take no chances, not at this stage.

1 squeezed his trigger, flipping the switch between life and death. The weapon coughed out two rounds, which entered the back of the man's head and devastated his brain stem. He watched as the corpse slumped forward, instantly turned off after the precise hit. There was no way to clean up or disguise this kill without either making too much noise or lingering for too long.

They advanced and almost immediately found what appeared to be what passed for an officer's sleeping quarters among Kusakabe's followers. The man inside the first room was just as asleep as the others in the outside barracks had been. He would never wake up.

The team swept the floor, quietly making sure that everyone they found would be staying in bed indefinitely. Twenty three slowly cooling bodies later, they struck gold.

Room twelve by their count was larger than the rest. While the others seemed to be fairly spartan officers' quarters, or at least the Blood of the Samurai equivalent of such, behind the final door was a space better described as a live in office. A basic looking prefab wooden desk, two computers, a pile of phones, a rack of clothes that they recognized as old JGSDF uniforms, and an actual bed, albeit a small one.

In that bed was the man they had come all this way to find. Reaper 1-1 advanced with the satisfaction of a man that knew his prey had no chance. He let his M7S down on its sling and withdrew a foul smelling cloth from a special pouch on his kit. He grabbed Josui Kusakabe and held the cloth down on his face. The man's eyes shot open, fear, surprise, and panic obvious on the part of his face still visible. He tried to struggle, but in his semi conscious state, held down by a trained killer, and having no choice but to breathe in the chemical cocktail being held against his face, Kusakabe went limp after only a few seconds of token resistance.

The Reapers grabbed the phones and both computers, older model notebooks, stuffed them into RF shielded bags, and distributed the treasure trove of intel among the team. At the same time, Kusakabe was expertly restrained with heavy plastic cuffs, a gag, and zipped up in a black body bag. Carrying their HVT out of this place was a job that fell to Reaper 1-4. 4 was the biggest man on the team, and his kit had been intentionally left ultra light specifically for this purpose. He could keep up, even with an extra 80 or so kilos of weight in a fireman's carry.

With the primary mission complete, getting Kusakabe out alive was a secondary priority. They had him, and he wasn't going to escape from this. A confirmed kill was sufficient if need be. But perhaps they wouldn't need to. After all, extracting him alive was by far the more preferable option. Even to these men, ice cold professionals laser focused on the mission, they wanted him to suffer for what he had done. What better way to do that than to deliver him intact to the mercy of one particularly vengeful Britannian woman, or lack thereof.

But first, something had to be done about this base. It was a concentration of enemy forces that they could not leave intact. However, direct action and sabotage was not their primary mission tonight. They had to get the man in the body bag out of here intact if at all possible. Other, more overtly violent forces had been put in place for just such an occasion.

As they began to trace back through their ingress route to get out of the base, Reaper 1-1 reached for his comms and hit the transmit button for the first time in three days.

* * *

**0153 Hours, September 01, 2017 ATB**

**Southern Shikoku, Area 11**

_**HMS Vesper**_

During the past week of combat operations concentrated on northern Shikoku, the RBN in Area 11 had moved several warships down to provide support. The Blood of the Samurai had no navy to speak of, but the threat posed by the Chinese was ever present. Unlike their internal terrorist enemies, the Chinese Federation was known to possess a powerful arsenal of anti ship missiles. Although they were well within range already, moving warships too close to Kyushu could be seen as provocative. Thus, most vessels stayed in the waters east of Imabari.

Of course, this logic only applied if forces in Kyushu could detect the vessels in question. Enter HMS _Vesper_, one of several experiments to adapt ocean going combat to the new age of knightmare warfare. An older cruise missile submarine converted into a carrier for Portman class knightmare frames, it was the only ship of its type on this side of the pacific. Unlike the rest of the experimental vessels, split almost half and half between surface ships and submarines, this one was going to be the first to see a combat operation.

Inside the _Vesper's _hull, the space that had once been filled with VLS tubes for over 150 Jackhammer cruise missiles had been fully converted to a hangar for sixteen Portman II knightmare frames. The RBN operated the boat, while the Royal Marines provided the knightmare pilots. At that very moment, all sixteen marines were geared up and in their cockpits, awaiting a go order. They had been put on alert once the order had been given for the special forces team to begin their part of the operation. The call they were waiting for came in at precisely 0153 hours on the dot.

The Britannian marines, part of an elite raider unit, triple checked their weapons and machines. As soon as all sixteen Portman IIs showed green check ins, the navy sealed the bay and began to flood it in a controlled fashion, capturing the displaced atmosphere in secondary holding tanks to mitigate surface bubbles when the doors opened. The amphibious knightmare frames stood perfectly still until the space was full, and the pressure inside the chamber matched that of the ocean outside the hull. The marines signaled they were ready, and the doors above them opened up.

Each Portman II gently engaged their waterjet propulsion systems, and one at a time over a period of thirty seconds, stealthily lifted out of the submarine. While neither they nor the crew of the _Vesper_ thought there were enemy attack boats in the area, being careful and quiet got you killed a whole lot less than the other way around.

The marine knightmare frames, designated as call sign Mermaid for this operation, formed up outside the boat and began moving the five kilometers to the target location. They would remain under the surface the entire time as to not reveal themselves too early. They had plenty of weapons for when it was time to go loud.

* * *

**0225 Hours, September 01, 2017 ATB**

**Southern Shikoku, Area 11**

The entrance to the tunnel they were looking for was right where intel had put it in their briefing. Forty meters wide, thirty meters tall, and almost two hundred long, it was an unguarded route of direct access into the mountain base for anything that could swim. The edges were loosely concealed by irregular cuts in the rock, and a buildup of ocean life, but there was no doubt that it was an artificial feature.

Sixteen Royal Marines Portman II amphibious knightmare frames entered the tunnel, and split into teams of four. They immediately identified the enemy sub inside. They were relieved to notice that its screws weren't turning, and its torpedo tubes were pointed in the wrong direction. It was no threat to them, given the circumstances.

One team of Portmans went directly for the sub, with the intent of disabling it. If it couldn't move, it had no way to enter the fight even if it wanted to. The remaining twelve knightmares then surfaced, a team of four to each side of the rectangle that faced away from the water.

The men on the dock, and otherwise on shore within their field of view, all seemed to stop and stare. There weren't many of them, and those that were still awake pulling duties into the early morning probably all wished they were asleep. The marines were here to address that.

At once, the raiders raised their 25mm rifles up above the surface, and opened fire on everything around them. Most of the dock workers, and the three Chinese made Gun Ru knightmare frames they were using to move pallets, were torn to pieces as a mix of AP and HEAT rounds connected with them.

Return small arms fire began almost immediately, but it was almost all from pistols and assault rifles, with the occasional shotgun blast mixed in, none of which had much effect on a knightmare frame beyond wrecking the paint job. Still being in the water, they were offered even further protection from the tiny projectiles as only the upper third of the frame was exposed.

As the fight began, chaos reigned for a few moments as the marines got the situation in order. Once the sub was disabled, the last four marines joined the rest of their force on the surface, and then they quickly got out of the water with the aid of their slash harkens.

The sound inside the cavernous base was overwhelmingly loud, so much so that the marines could clearly feel the reverberating echoes even in their sealed up cockpits. Anyone caught inside without hearing protection would be at least temporarily deaf in short order. Hundreds of explosions in a confined space had that effect.

Even so, the incoming fire intensified as the invading raiders made it onto land. Some enemy infantry began to fire 40mm grenades as a substitute for a lack of anti armor weapons. It made little difference, although two of the Portmans suffered some damage from direct hits. It was annoying, but not enough to stop them. Although looking much worse for wear, all sixteen knightmare frames kept going strong.

Once it became apparent that the base's defenders did not have any heavy weapons, as they were inconveniently stored in the dockside warehouse after being offloaded from sub deliveries, the marines pushed the attack.

Chaos mines were thrown in the direction of the barracks structures that had been identified by the special ops team. Eight of the devices split open in mid air, and the resulting spray of burning hot projectiles resembled a literal rain of fire upon the target buildings. Hundreds of bodies were shredded by the torrent of hot metal and hurricane of secondary fragmentation, some before they could even get out of their bunks.

Normally, any sane opponent would be trying to surrender by this point. Having no real way to fight back, and taking enormous casualties, there was virtually no chance that the Blood of the Samurai fighters would even survive, much less win this fight. But continue to fight they did, their light weapons providing little deterrent to the sixteen amphibious killing machines they were trapped inside the mountain with.

Over the next half hour, Mermaid team cleared out the base, expending most of their ammunition in the process. By the time it was over, these sixteen men had become some of the most lethal in the history of the marine corps. Nobody would ever know exactly how many they killed; too many of the bodies were obliterated by the chaos mines and explosive rounds to be accurately counted. Final estimates would range between two thousand to just over three thousand enemy KIA. With them, the Blood of the Samurai effectively ceased to exist as an organized force.

* * *

**0252 Hours, September 01, 2017 ATB**

**Southern Shikoku, Area 11**

Escaping from the Blood of the Samurai fortress proved to be far easier than anticipated. As fate would have it, none of the bodies they had left concealed on their way in had been discovered yet. Not too surprising, considering the quality of the enemy's remaining troops. All they had left after their retreat south were the ultra fanatics, and those too stupid to see the end coming for them. Not exactly the makings of a quality force that could stay vigilant on boring patrol routes.

None of the men on the Reaper team had to fire another shot that night. The most tense part of the escape was actually the return to the exterior surface of Shikoku. Coming out of the cave entrance, they were exposed and lacking any overwatch. If there was a time to ambush a superior force, this would have been it. However, the only thing waiting for them proved to be the familiar sounds of the night.

Only a few minutes away through the forest was the small clearing where their extraction had landed minutes before. Two Type 10 VTOL transports were waiting on the ground for them when they arrived, their jet pods vertical and still warmed up.

Surrounding the LZ to provide security was a second Japanese special forces team, albeit of newer JLF origin. All of them were likely SDF members prior to the war, but as far as anyone knew, the two Reaper teams were all that remained of the original JGSDF SFG units. They were the elite of the elite, all of them having been in this business for over a decade. The new guys were good, but most lacked the experience to reach their level.

As the Reapers arrived with the HVT, everybody quickly converged on the two birds that would get them back to Tokyo. The pilots were airborne in moments, and the pair started the trip north, flying just above treetop height to minimize their signature to any potential anti aircraft weapons lurking about in the area. They weren't stealth aircraft, but it would be good enough against anything they were likely to run into on the way home.

* * *

**0300 Hours, September 01, 2017 ATB**

**_HMS Deucalion_, Tokyo, Area 11**

For the first time in a long time, Luna vi Britannia distinctly felt out of place. She was still technically an imperial princess, and had seized control of the colonial government. This was by any measure her country now. Yet, standing in the CIC of the Logres-class battleship _HMS Deucalion _was like a whole different world.

Although the massive vessel was on the ground, docked alongside her Caerleon-class escorts atop Tokyo's superstructure, the ship was still a hive of activity. Primarily, this was due to Princess Cornelia retaining the use of the battleship as her primary command post.

The CIC of a Logres-class battleship was spacious, very well equipped, and surrounded by the familiar security the ship provided. Even landed as it was, most combat stations were manned at all times. It wasn't quite like being permanently on GQ, but Cornelia demanded that her flagship maintain a high level of readiness. Considering who they were standing ready to defend, the crew didn't complain. They were among Cornelia's most loyal troops, and their devotion showed.

All the more reason Luna felt off being here. She had not a single true ally aboard this ship. Although confident that Cornelia wasn't going to stab her in the back, it still felt like the perfect opportunity for that to happen.

Although, as video feeds of the operation in progress played across the main displays, she was constantly reminded of why she had come here. Convincing Cornelia to support joint operations with the IJA, both training and live missions, had been an important breakthrough. Now, she was here to see it through.

This was still the very early stages of those efforts, but there on the feeds before her were sixteen Royal Marines knightmare frames performing a strike based almost exclusively on intel provided from Japanese sources. They had to trust their counterparts, and so far, the results were proving to be very positive. She watched with a grin as the portmans mowed down unprepared BOTS personnel in their own base. It was a one sided slaughter, and that suited her just fine. Watching them die in droves almost made up for the discomfort of having to be awake at this hour.

"Your people were spot on." Gilbert Guilford said from beside her. "Fish in a barrel would have put up more of a fight. I haven't seen a surprise attack work that well in a long time."

"I have confidence in my intelligence services and special forces." She replied plainly, not looking away from the array of feeds.

"Well placed it seems." He replied, equally detached. Instead of the monitors, he was staring at Cornelia further forward in the room. She glanced over at him. Of course he was; she was literally the center of his universe in every capacity.

Luna's attention turned to the man beside her. She did not know him personally all that well, but experiences in both this life and the past, told her that he was one of the most loyal men alive. She would be willing to bet that he would not question her, no matter what path she chose to follow. That could be a boon, or it could be dangerous. Right now, she suspected it was more the former. All Cornelia had to do was tell him to help coordinate their forces, and he would put aside any personal prejudices or reservations in an instant to obey her.

A bit like Jeremiah, really, Luna realized after a moment. He wasn't officially a knight of honor, but he was much the same as the man standing here. Jeremiah, as with Guilford, suffered from the same fanatic blind loyalty to their respective princesses. She suspected that he would do nothing to rein in her more violent tendencies if it came down to it.

A memory of the night in Clovis's Code-R research lab came to mind. It wasn't quite a stress flashback, but she suddenly remembered in vivid detail walking down that line of prisoners, opening throat after throat with warm, wet steel. Jeremiah wouldn't have stopped her, had he been present. But neither would Guilford, had it been Cornelia executing those men in a blood rage.

Of course, Jeremiah had reached that level of personal devotion without sleeping with her. Not that she could hold it against Guilford, considering what she saw as she glanced back at Cornelia.

Luna liked the idea of him being so blindly loyal. She had plenty of tools available to manipulate Cornelia as necessary. Now all she had to do was keep her knight from being disruptive to her plans to get Cornelia firmly on her side.

"Cornelia looks quite pleased with the results so far." Luna said, returning her attention to the feeds.

"Those are the men that assassinated Prince Clovis dying out there, what's left of them at any rate. Her highness wants them all destroyed. If anything, she's hiding her disappointment at not having the chance to kill them herself." Guilford explained.

"You know her better than anyone, Guilford. Tell me, does she really lead from the front as often as is claimed?" Guilford nodded in response.

"Trying to protect Princess Cornelia has undoubtedly given me the most combat experience of any knight of honor in the empire. Most who hold the position perform their duties in a ceremonial and personal bodyguard capacity. Cornelia, however, has spent more time being shot at by hostile troops than she had gossiping in Pendragon."

"Does it bother you that she's always running toward danger?" Luna asked him.

"Not anymore. You could say that I've...come around to her approach. It's why she commands such loyalty from the 5th. Talk to other units in the army, and they say that we can make anything happen.

We performed miracles in the deserts. Feats of speed, maneuver, logistics, and outright combat power that are the envy of the world. All with Princess Cornelia leading from the front. That's how the 5th ended up with the name Angel Division." The knight told her.

"Siwa." Luna muttered. Guilford grinned with pride.

"The NAU's scout reports dismissed us as mirages. The enemy couldn't possibly advance over six hundred kilometers through the desert for an attack when they were supposed to be hugging the Mediterranean coast, right?" He said with a grin.

The Battle of Siwa Oasis had been one for the storybooks. Calling it a "battle" may have been a stretch, considering how one sided the engagement turned out to be. The Britannian 5th Armored Division rolled across the Libyan desert and smashed almost two divisions worth of NAU forces in a laughably one sided action. Completely unaware until they were actually under attack, the NAU troops broke, routed, and were subsequently slaughtered over the course of the next six hours. It set the North African Union on a death spiral that it never recovered from. What was left of their shattered armies fled east to Cairo. Cornelia and 5th Armored would later destroy most of the survivors of Siwa in a fierce engagement just south of Giza, on the opening day of the Battle of Cairo.

"Did she actually lead the first charge, or is that just embellishment?" Luna asked of the opening assault. Guilford nodded with a grin and began to tell the tale.

"It was late afternoon, just past 1700 as we got within five kilometers of the enemy. 2nd Battalion was in the lead as formed up. We were seven Gloucesters and forty Sutherlands with leveled lances as we charged. Cornelia put the accelerator on the floor and pulled ahead in the last five hundred meters. Their front line broke before we even hit them; before we even fired a shot. They saw her highness at the front, lance gleaming under the setting sun, and they knew it was their end." He recalled with a fervor.

"Telling war stories, are we?" Cornelia asked from beside them. Neither had noticed her approach.

"Only the good ones." Guilford said with a smile.

"It's been three years, but Siwa still feels like yesterday." Cornelia reminisced. "I miss that day; that glorious victory. Most of the natives fled in terror, but I will never forget those few that turned to face me with their ancient vehicles. They were brave men. Stupid men, but so brave that they've earned my respect with their deaths."

"Unlike the Blood of the Samurai." Luna said.

"It's a shame there's so few of them left after today. I would love to paint my machine with their blood."

"Don't worry, Cornelia. There will be more war. Remember what I told you. You'll have real enemies to test in the not so distant future." Luna said to her. "And speaking of the future, we need to discuss it."

"How so? The plan we've put together has been working well, even if we're still in the early stages."

"In two weeks, I'm going to hold a conference of every major player in the country, military and civilian. Together, we're going to leave as little ambiguity about the future as possible." Luna told them both.

"In person?" Cornelia asked skeptically. "That sounds like a very high value target for anyone that wants us dead."

"Which is why we're going to meet in the dorsal observation deck of the _Hiryu_."

"Your giant airship?"

"Can you think of a more secure place on this side of the planet?" Luna asked. "If anyone can destroy the _Hiryu _with no warning, I'll spend my final moments thoroughly impressed."

Cornelia chuckled at the thought. Even she had to admit that the ship was a flying fortress without equal. She glanced up at it, visible as a long string of lights in the night sky twenty something kilometers away. While she wouldn't admit it in present company, she had thought about that scenario. Even with a surprise attack, she would have great difficulty taking it down with available forces in Area 11, and at the cost of most of them. Luna was right about it being secure from external threats. As for internal threats, Cornelia wasn't worried about that nearly as much. If Luna had shown enough courtesy to board her ship, she would at least return the favor. That, and she really did want to take a peek inside it.

* * *

**0800 Hours, September 01, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 5000m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**High Security Brig**

Josui Kusakabe, former JGSDF and JLF officer, leader of the Blood of the Samurai, sat on his knees, not quite proper seiza, but close enough, as he stared at the smooth metal wall one meter in front of him. To his left and right were identical featureless metal walls, the monotony broken only by a toilet made of the same stainless steel, a small sink, and a sleeping mat. Behind him was a 50mm thick plate of clear ballistic glass that doubled as the cell's door by retracting into the floor.

He did not know exactly where he was, his captors had exercised thorough operational security procedures when moving him, but it mattered little in the end. His enemies, Japan's relentless enemies, had finally caught up with him. Kusakabe had always known in the back of his mind that this was a possibility, but he never believed for a second that it would actually happen to him.

He had expected to go out in a glorious last stand action, should he ever be defeated. Not pulled out of an underground safehouse, and locked in a cage with his last worldly possession being the cheap underwear the guards had given him. Being strip searched by _gaijin _was one of the worst humiliations he had ever been forced to endure.

Even so, the conduct of his captors up to this point had genuinely surprised him. While their treatment had not exactly been gentle, none of them had tried to purposely harm him. He had been expecting a torture chamber as he was pulled out of an aircraft he did not remember boarding, thick black hood over his head, by two powerful special forces operators. But that fate had not come, which either meant it wasn't going to happen, or they had something worse in store.

Kusakabe almost turned around as he heard new noises behind him. Through the tiny, millimeter wide air holes at the top of the glass door, the sound of approaching boots upon metal filtered down to him. It wasn't the two guards posted outside the door, as he had never heard them leave. That meant it must be someone here for him.

He did begin to turn around as he heard the keypad, and the cell door begin to retract. Standing behind the slowly moving glass, the only new person in his field of view was a single Britannian woman. He looked her up and down.

Black hair just a bit high of reaching her shoulders, piercing violet eyes, and a finely made suit that reeked of self proclaimed importance.

"Oh how a few years can change a man." She spoke. "From a proud SDF officer that fought in one of the most important battles in Japanese history, to a rat cowering in the dirt. You disappoint me, Kusakabe, to say nothing of what General Katase thinks of you."

"As if I care what you people think of me." He replied, wondering what Katase had to do with this.

"What happened to you, Kusakabe? What turned a career army officer with a good record into the monster kneeling before me?" She asked the prisoner, crossing her arms and leaning back against the right wall.

"You imperial bastards happened. The fourth of August happened." He growled.

"I'm not talking about the invasion. You didn't go off the reservation until over a year later. What changed?" Luna asked him, genuinely wanting to know.

"Why do you care, Britannian?"

"Because I want to know what can make a man so deluded as to believe that killing his own people, many of which were innocent children, can be in their best interest, as you've so claimed."

"The penalty for treason is death." Kusakabe spat. "All that collude with the invaders are traitors to their people. They were not, are not Japanese."

"Neither are you, Eleven." Luna told him with a smug smoothness that sent hot rage through his veins. Kusakabe snarled, and began to make a move as if to strike at her, but his arms and legs suddenly locked up. He fell flat on his face as brutal electrical surges ripped conscious control of his muscles away. He lay there convulsing for what felt like long minutes, even though it was just a few seconds. As it faded, he looked up to notice that she was holding a small remote. Of course the damn shackles were rigged to electrocute prisoners, typical Britannian cruelty.

"We are not numbers!" He yelled, face still pressed into the steel floor from the pain in his limbs. Luna put her right boot under his shoulder and flipped him onto his back with a painful yelp. Of all the things this man was, a warrior in peak physical condition was not among them. Military discipline and fitness standards had apparently been left behind when he abandoned the JLF, and made no better by a life in hiding.

"The good people of Japan had it bad enough living under the tyranny of my brother's rule without having to worry about being murdered by savages like you."

"At least we killed that pig." He coughed out, forcing a grin onto his face. Even in agony, he couldn't help it. He was the leader of an organization that killed a Britannian prince. Few could claim such a status, and he was proud of it. Even in defeat.

"And in doing so, you put me in charge. How's that working out for you?" She asked with a hint of mocking sarcasm. He didn't answer as he stared up from the floor. Luna pressed the attack.

"Clovis liked to party. He spent his energy socializing, painting, and leaving the real work to his often incompetent lackeys. Life under Clovis was the best you could have asked for. You were facing a man that could barely command a ballroom dance on a good day, much less military operations. Killing him was the last thing you should have done.

I won my first battle when I was ten years old. I defeated and executed a Knight of Rounds at Narita. And now I've taken over an Area of the Holy Britannian Empire without having to fire a shot, with the full backing of a Japanese army to enforce my rule. You may have killed Clovis, but you never had a chance against me."

She crouched down, the remote control for the shock restraints always in his field of vision. Her finger was poised over the trigger, just waiting to let the electrons sing once again.

"Just kill me and be done with it, you royal bitch." Kusakabe said, his voice a bit weaker. The man was clearly exhausted from the stress of fighting a losing insurgency, and the fate that had befallen him. At least he hadn't completely given up yet.

"It should be obvious by now that I'm going to torture you." Luna told him.

"The electric shocks gave it away." He replied blandly.

"Oh no, I don't mean physical pain. Listening to you scream and yell as you're flayed alive would only give me a headache. I've got something much more satisfying planned."

"I'm not going to play your games." He said firmly.

"Of course you are. But it's more satisfying if you say no." She said with an icy tone.

She reached out and grabbed him. With a knee on his chest, her bare hand on his throat, and looking straight down into his eyes, Luna introduced him to a new world of suffering. Although concealed beneath her shirt and jacket, the bird sigil on her chest flared a brilliant ruby red. Kusakabe's eyes widened in silent, abject terror as he experienced his soul being invaded.


	2. Ripples

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.

* * *

**1230 Hours, 03 September, 2017 ATB**

**10km above California, Britannia**

**HMS Avalon**

Second Prince Schneizel el Britannia pondered what to make of the latest developments out of Area 11. He had almost dismissed the initial reports of Luna vi Britannia's return outright when she had first reappeared. It was clearly just a talented, and probably insane impostor. He had changed his views after watching her live, and then a few dozen more times thereafter, cross referencing the woman claiming to be Luna against any video, audio, or photographic record of the girl prior to Empress Marianne's assassination. Thorough analysis had convinced him that it was in fact the real deal that had taken over Area 11.

The legitimacy of her claim to be who she said she was no longer troubled his mind. That was either Luna vi Britannia, or somebody had perfected cloning technology. No, what occupied his thoughts now was her pattern of behavior. The actions he was witnessing unfold in the east were not those of an amateur raging against the unfairness of the world. She knew what she was doing. The question being, to what ends?

How exactly a Britannian princess, as young as she was and with virtually no resources, had taken over the remnant military forces of a country the empire had so recently conquered was simply mind boggling to him. Of course, he thought of plenty of ways one such as himself could have done so, but he was enormously well connected and financed. That it could be done as an exiled child was something he had never even imagined.

Regardless of how exactly Luna had managed to pull it off, they were no longer the bloodied remains of the Japanese SDF that the imperial military had so thoroughly swept aside seven years ago. It irritated him to no end that a people that should have been relegated to a few pages in the history books had performed what was looking every day like a miraculous recovery. How had they done it? The transformation from broken army without a country, to what was clearly there today should not have been possible, at least not within a decade.

There were also external possibilities to consider. Were they being funded and equipped by China or Europe? China he could dismiss quickly. The JLF, now the so called Imperial Japanese Army, had no ties to China that his agents could identify. Analysts had advised him that they considered the Chinese Federation to be as much a threat, if not more so, than Britannia.

That would have been laughable, except for the fact that they had just taken over some of the most strategically valuable infrastructure in Britannian controlled territory, and nobody had so much as fired a single shot to stop them from doing so. Granted, they had not actually denied the empire use of Area 11's sakuradite mines with their takeover. Production had actually increased slightly now that the IJA had three divisions worth of troops put to the task of keeping the mines and transport arteries safe from insurgent attacks and criminals. That was a hard data point to hold against them. But it was the principle that mattered.

Everything about the IJA was madness, except if they truly were under Luna vi Britannia's control. Assuming that they were her own private army fixed the equation to a worrying degree. As crazy as the idea was, she really had somehow managed to secure the loyalty of people that by all rights should be enemies of the empire. They should be rebels fighting to overthrow the colonial government and take their country back, not happily taking orders from the newly self proclaimed head of said government.

The problems that they had caused for the empire as a whole were actually quite minor. While they were a present potential threat, nothing they had done so far had a meaningful negative effect on the Britannian economy or military interests, yet. What Luna and her army did impact, however, was Schneizel's own plans for Area 11.

While Clovis's death was very much an expected development, his decision to use his official capacity to move Cornelia to Area 11 had several ulterior motives. She was a uniquely useful piece on the board, being both a talented military leader, and one of the very few to be more loyal to the empire as a whole over any of its internal factions. As PM, he could give her orders that would otherwise require personal loyalty, and she was quite likely to follow them.

Cornelia's redeployment to Area 11 had originally been intended to result in a military crackdown that crushed the rebel forces Clovis had been so inept as to let fester like a cancer. She was supposed to be very grateful to him for the opportunity to return to Area 11, exterminate the local resistance, and investigate the deaths of her sisters to her heart's content. By giving her what she most wanted, she would be far more likely to side with him when the empire inevitably began to unravel. Instead, his plan to secure Cornelia's allegiance against Guinevere had been murdered to death by the mother of all black swans at the worst possible moment. It was an age old saying that nobody was truly dead without a body, and Schneizel cursed himself for not seriously considering her survival beforehand.

Thus returning to the worrisome developments he was now hearing of, chief among them that Luna and Cornelia had agreed some sort of deal, and had begun military intelligence sharing and limited joint operations between her forces and the Japanese. If what his men were saying panned out, Cornelia would be sending her famed Glaston Knights to spearhead some sort of cross service training exercise between the two armies.

While the reports from his spies contained little about the princesses themselves, it was clear to him at this point that Cornelia and Luna had moved from an adversarial relationship to a cooperative one far quicker than he would have liked to see.

Schneizel had a sizable chunk of the imperial military on his good side, and a plethora of generals, none of which could even remotely compare to Cornelia li Britannia in a battlefield command position. While most of them had some degree of combat experience, Cornelia had spent over a fourth of her life at war, and in many cases leading in a manner that neither generals nor royalty should in this century.

The problem was that it worked for her, and in doing so, she commanded a degree of loyalty and admiration from the military that could be a very real problem. While she did not possess enough forces to be a significant military threat from a combat power perspective, there was a very real chance that some of the units outwardly loyal to him would defect if his order put them up against Cornelia, and not solely from fear of defeat. She was the empire's great conquering hero of the age, and it would take a lot to get soldiers to raise their weapons against someone of her station. Even if they did, few would have their hearts in it.

For now, Cornelia would certainly continue to respond if he acted in his role as prime minister. She was one of the very rare few near the top that gave his official position as PM any real respect. But even so, there was little he could now order her to do that would not put her in direct conflict with Luna's forces and objectives. That could lead to a potentially disastrous situation involving the sakuradite supply. He strongly suspected that if any such orders came down, she would refuse to execute them.

Schneizel let out a long exhale as he considered what his next move should be. For all purposes rooted in practicality, Area 11 was lost to him. But he smiled with the knowledge that at least it was certainly beyond the reach of Guinevere as well.

"Shall I bring some tea, your highness?" Kanon Maldini, Schneizel's personal assistant and private confidant asked him.

"Yes. Thank you, Kanon." He replied, still staring down at a map on his desk. If it were anyone else, he would have refused the offer. Kanon, however, was one of the very few people in the world that the Second Prince actually trusted. He was so confident that whatever steaming liquid Kanon returned with would in fact be just a cup of tea, that he didn't worry in the slightest. It paid to treat your close subordinates very well, as many had learned the hard way.

Three minutes later, he did as promised. It was, as expected, tea of reasonable quality. While the Avalon was not an active duty warship under RAF command, it was still largely crewed by RAF airmen, and maintained a combat ready status. They couldn't be expected to have the highest quality tea in such an environment. Schneizel was more than willing to forgive that, unlike some others he could think of that expected everywhere to be up to the standards of their private palace paradises.

"Still thinking about Area 11?" Kanon asked him. The prime minister nodded.

"It's an unprecedented situation." Schneizel said as he sipped his tea. "The rebels aren't behaving like rebels, and that's causing more problems for us than if they were."

"Nobody knows what to make of it, or so the lack of consensus about them goes. There are peers, some quite powerful indeed, on both sides of the argument. Rumor has it that the Blood of the Samurai's leader was captured alive by their forces two days ago, shortly before the Royal Marines attacked a secret underground base." Kanon elaborated.

"It's all but confirmed." Schneizel told him. "I've already seen the report of the marines' action, and it mentions that there was a small special forces team that infiltrated the base just prior to the Portmans being deployed. The report went out of its way to be vague about who they were."

"Do you believe they were Elevens?" Kanon asked.

"Most likely. It would go well with the news I've heard about Princess Luna's native army taking a more cooperative stance with local imperial forces. This Blood of the Samurai faction is also a common enemy between them, so it would make sense that they would field test the idea against that particular group." Schneizel speculated. "How successful they were remains to be seen, but it would appear that the experiment has not failed."

"Shows of force aside, they aren't as large as they make themselves out to be. A few combat divisions, support units, and fortified local infrastructure." Kanon pointed out, leaving out their airship intentionally. Schneizel was well aware that they had somehow built or acquired the largest flying warship ever built, and rubbing that in would not help.

"It's the optics that matter here, Kanon." Schneizel sighed. "While the empire could simply crush them under weight of numbers if nothing else, we cannot actually deploy forces of that magnitude to Area 11. The logistics alone would be daunting right now, not to mention that we could do nothing to hide the buildup. China wouldn't buy our reasoning for putting such a force on their doorstep for a minute, no matter how true it was."

"This really is an unprecedented situation." Kanon muttered, echoing his superior's earlier words.

"Indeed. There's virtually nothing we can do that would not be seen as a provocation to China that they would undoubtedly respond to, if we're talking about a military solution. Any force sufficiently large to destroy this IJA, would by necessity be large enough to threaten China's hold on Kyushu. They would quite rightly see preparations for an invasion." Schneizel said.

"Few options exist on other fronts either." Kanon added. Schneizel nodded.

"Unfortunately. Luna's native forces have near complete control of Area 11's sakuradite production and distribution network, which means that any attempt to remove her would cause massive economic disruption, and that is the best case scenario in which Cornelia decides to follow my orders."

"She's got the sakuradite supply effectively held hostage."

"Is it really though?" Schneizel asked, marveling at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation they found themselves in. "Generally, one would take hostages under a line of thinking that they could then be used as bargaining chips of some sort. She hasn't made any explicit demands of the empire. That's the part that leaves me wondering."

"How so?"

"There are a lot of unanswered questions in my estranged sister's past. Who murdered her mother should be at the top of the pile. I was at least expecting an attempt to forcibly restart the investigation into her death, for a start." Schneizel speculated. "That was never solved, by the way, not even privately. I still to this day do not know who assassinated Marianne vi Britannia."

"The 'terrorists' angle was the cover story, but if it were a court rival, or even a foreign entity…"

"Yes, Kanon. Whoever killed her was the perfect assassin. The only physical evidence left behind were the bullets themselves, which unfortunately were some sort of frangible rounds. Only mangled fragments and powdered copper were recovered from her body. We can't even narrow down the exact caliber used.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the killing, and few had anything to directly gain by eliminating her in such a manner. Those that did were under so much scrutiny thereafter that it should have been a near impossibility to hide their involvement."

"To murder royalty in the heart of Pendragon…" Kanon mused aloud.

"But to get away with it clean, that, Kanon, was the perfect crime." Schneizel cut in. "That she hasn't demanded that we solve it is telling. There is much we do not know about her true goals and motivations."

"An unpredictable opponent can often be the most dangerous." Kanon quoted the man in front of him. Schneizel smiled. Kanon had learned much from him over the years.

He sipped his tea as he continued to process this anomaly. He knew so little about Luna, aside from the flowery propaganda speech and her apparent consolidation of power in Area 11. Assuming that she was still the same girl that was sent away across the Pacific seven and a half years ago would be foolish. Yet, it was that girl whom had grown into the adversary he now faced.

Two and a half millennia ago, Sun Tzu immortalized the importance of knowing your enemy, and the value of that lesson hadn't declined in the slightest. If he wanted to know who the Luna vi Britannia of today truly was, the answers he sought lay in the seven year gap of her known life. Schneizel knew what she was made of, but to find the vulnerabilities he sought, he needed to know how she had been forged. One way or another, he was going to find out.

* * *

**0555 Hours, 04 September, 2017 ATB**

**Pendragon, Britannia**

"So what are we now, after last night?" Marianne vi Britannia, currently occupying the body of the since deposed Guinevere su Britannia, asked as she rolled over. The young man lying beside her slowly opened his uncovered eye.

"I'm not sure." He muttered, still sleepy.

"I care about you, but it's not love. Not the kind you're looking for." She said to him.

"I think I know how you feel." Julius Kingsley said as he woke up. "I can't say that I love you either. But I am drawn to you, and not because of that perfect body."

"This perfect body is the only reason you're in bed with me." Marianne quipped.

"Not going to argue with that. But how do you feel now that you're no longer so pent up after seven years trapped in that underdeveloped little girl?" He asked, sitting up.

"I want more. " Marianne told him bluntly. "You don't just throw one steak to a starving lioness. If you do, she's getting two." Even in a different body, he immediately knew that 'I know what I want, and I'm going to get it' face she made. For better or worse, he was going to be seeing a whole lot more of that pretty rose tattoo on her left breast.

"Aren't you afraid that we'll get too attached?" He asked. That was a point of unease between them. He wasn't supposed to form real attachments with his targets, but Guinevere had been something else. He would never admit it to anyone, much less present company, but he had very briefly considered betraying Marianne, and shooting her dead in that lobby to protect Guinevere. Out of love for a woman that would have turned on him in an instant had she known the truth. He didn't like to think about that.

Although you could never have told from her exterior persona, the former First Princess had been a great woman. At least, she had been in their private intimacy, and Julius did not believe she was faking it. They both had just wanted to be loved, and almost found that in each other. Almost.

Going through with his part of the plan had been a uniquely painful experience that left him feeling hollow inside. A part of his heart had died with her, and he would never get it back.

"Because it's the same body?" She asked.

"Partially."

"Or is it because you think I'm somehow going to fall in love with you if we keep sleeping together?"

"I hope you don't." He replied. "I don't deserve to be loved, not anymore."

"Julius…" Marianne began with a touch of genuine concern.

"I can live with what I did, Marianne. I kept my word, and I completed my part in pursuit of the greater good. But I don't think I can live trying to replace her in here." He placed his right hand over his heart. "The guilt would destroy me."

"I know it's worthless coming from me, but I'm truly sorry for this. It must be torturous to see this body without its rightful soul."

"I'll live. I trust you, Marianne, and I believe in the mission. But I won't love you. I can't love you. So don't even try." He told her.

"It won't be too much longer, Julius." Marianne tried to reassure her partner. "As the First Princess, I'm making substantial progress toward gathering the loyalty of enough forces to seize the thought elevators. Schneizel has his supporters, but there are quite a few people of note in the military that hate his guts for a whole rainbow of reasons. With a little spin that makes it sound like I'll be protecting the realm when he inevitably tries to overthrow the emperor, even more are coming around."

"They don't need to be truly loyal." The young duke said.

"Of course not. They don't even need to know their real mission objectives. But enough will be blindly loyal to me to secure the elevator sites." She said.

"And CC? Even if we complete the weapon, both halves of the key are needed to activate it." He asked. "We cannot complete our mission with VV alone."

"That will be the harder part. We know where she was, Area 11, but not where she is now. Clovis had her imprisoned for a time, but did not understand the true value she could have represented to him." She explained. "He saw what most men in his position would have:

"Is there really no way to acquire your daughter's assistance in finding her?" Julius asked for what had to be the fifth or sixth time. "With an army at her command, it would make that step much easier."

"We've been over this already. There's no realistic way we could do that. Luna has absolutely no reason to trust Princess Guinevere, or even want to work with her at arm's length. The alternative is to tell her a truth she would never believe, for an end goal that sounds like a mad fairy tale to the uninitiated. Just because we know it's real doesn't mean it's easy to convince somebody intelligent of that fact. And even then, it's not guaranteed that she would side with us even if she believed it." Marianne told him.

"Well, I could just…" Julius began, but was immediately shut down.

"No." She said firmly. "You're not doing that to my daughter. Not now, not ever. No matter how far separated we are, Luna's still my child. That's the one line I will not cross." Kingsley put his hands up in mock surrender.

"As you wish. If we're not going to use the easy button, then we're going to need a real plan and the resources to make it work."

"We have that." She began. "The problem is that almost none of it happens to be located in Area 11. Acquiring CC is a priority, but there is little we can do about that at present. Just figuring out where she is, is a more pressing concern. This would be so much easier if Clovis had never been involved. The connection I possess with CC went quiet shortly after the time I believe he captured her. She's never responded since. Had that not happened, she may have come to us willingly with the telepathic equivalent of a phone call."

"You want me to try to find her the hard way?" Kingsley asked.

"We still have time before the pot gets stirred up. I don't want you going over there, not yet, but see what you can do from this side of the world. Be creative, dear, you're good at that." Marianne smiled at him.

* * *

**1830 Hours, 04 September, 2017 ATB**

**Joint Base Fukuoka, Chinese Controlled Kyushu**

"Your plan did not work, governor." As supreme commander of all Chinese Federation forces in Kyushu, General Cao was effectively the final authority on the ground in this province. Sitting across from him was a thoroughly displeased Atsushi Sawasaki.

Once a democratically elected representative in the old Japanese government, he was now the pseudo dictator of Kyushu. The only one of the four major home islands to escape Britannian conquest, Kyushu had instead fallen into the control of their neighbors to the west.

In truth, Kyushu had been invaded by a foreign power every bit as much as the rest of Japan had been back in 2010, but Sawasaki was a talented spin doctor. He had not only convinced the Chinese government to put him in charge of the island, he had also managed to portray the Chinese takeover of Kyushu as an intervention that saved its populace from slavery under imperial rule. As with most expert liars, he had spun just enough truth into the story he sold that almost everybody bought it. The few that did not...went away.

As such, he had completely spared his island from the vicious Japanese insurrection that had been pervasive throughout the Britannian controlled islands. That had done more than anything to appease his new overlords. They believed he could do what he said he could, and Sawasaki himself started to believe it, if not a bit too much. The plan, whose failure General Cao was now here to discuss, was every bit a product of his own hubris as the actions of external forces.

"The Blood of the Samurai were ultimately weaker than expected." Sawasaki sighed. The Britannian surprise attack on their submarine base had broken them for the last time. They had no other real holdings, and certainly nowhere from which to accept good smuggled covertly under the waves. Even more, they had lost virtually all of their remaining heavy weapons. What remained was a scattering of terrorist irregulars with small arms, a bit of light infantry at best. They would be little more than live fire training for Sawasaki's real foes.

"They did a lot of damage in the last few years, but little of real, lasting military value." Cao said. "As fate would have it, their greatest impact was wholly unexpected after the death of Clovis."

"The dead princess." Sawasaki almost spat. "I met that little bitch once, you know. Back before the Britannian invasion when she had been sent here with her cripple of a sister. Kururugi didn't see what she was really doing until it was far too late to stop her. Not that it mattered in the end. "

"I could blame you for all of this. Nobody that matters would question me for doing so." Cao said, staring straight into Sawasaki. "But I will not. Your plan failed, but not because of anything you did. Killing the prince should have thrown the country into chaos, which could have been worth sacrificing Kusakabe. Truthfully, governor, I am quite surprised that our chosen pack of savages managed to succeed in that. In the end, they did manage to achieve the objective you claimed our support would enable them to, even if the end result was far from ideal."

"It was Clovis's own ineptitude more than any success on the part of the Blood of the Samurai that got him killed. It must have been a sad state of affairs over there if men like that could gun down a prince in the middle of his own city. Our contribution was, fortunately, not easily traceable."

Official reports of stolen military hardware provided a good cover for their covert support of Kusakabe. Guns and vehicles would go missing, investigations would be had, and 'corrupt' elements would be found guilty in a very public fashion. Predictable, if still effective for covering their tracks.

Of course, Sawasaki had gone even further than that, making sure that the hardware was really 'stolen' from a few poorly guarded supply depots by uninformed Japanese men that had no connection to him or the KDF. 'Criminal' syndicates, also completely unaffiliated, would then move the weapons and gear on the same submarines they used to get drugs into Area 11. Nobody would ever produce any hard evidence that Sawasaki was supporting Kusakabe, even though he was an obvious suspect.

"No doubt we would be facing a Britannian invasion of our own had that not been the case. Aiding in the assassination of a prince would lead to serious calls for war if it was ever discovered." Cao commented.

"I worry that may happen anyway." Sawasaki told the Chinese general. "We know so little about the princess, but I do know General Katase. I have few good things to say about the man, but he is truly loyal to Japan, or at least what he sees as Japan. He will want to reunite the country, and the princess may very well want the same thing."

"Similar concerns have come to my attention. Her situation is strong, but brittle. I would like to keep it that way. Nothing would weld those two forces together better than a serious external threat."

"Nothing else could. But at least she cannot attack us directly." Sawasaki added. "If she did, either it would start a real war with Britannia, or they would immediately turn on her and deny that they ordered it."

"If the Britannians turn on her, I doubt that her Japanese army will as well, especially for attempting to invade Kyushu. That would undoubtedly lead to a civil war in Japan." Cao mused.

"Which is why she will not do it. However, we must remain vigilant. She's already proven quite willing to bend the rules, and her return was a coup by any other name. I am not expecting this princess to play the empire's game."

"Do not forget that she could just as easily make them play her game." Cao countered. "Britannia needs the sakuradite from Area 11. If she does attack us, no matter what Britannia says or denies, they would have no choice but to fight if we begin to make gains into Honshu."

"Which would escalate into a third Pacific War very quickly." Sawasaki concluded aloud, more to himself than for General Cao. That, he knew, would only end in disaster, both for himself and Kyushu.

Regardless of what he managed to do in Kyushu, the little kingdom he had managed to carve out of Japan's demise would get squashed in the hydraulic press of a full on war between Britannia and China. That his island would inevitably be ground zero for the land war of such a conflict, and possibly even its cause made him nervous about the idea. He very much wanted to keep the Britannians away for as long as possible.

While the Chinese Federation had deployed considerable forces to Kyushu, Sawasaki was no fool. This was not the hill they wanted to die on. If it came down to a war of that scale, they would likely abandon him and the KDF for the relative safety mainland and hope Britannia did not escalate to the level of trying to invade China. But even if they did not, there was virtually nothing they could do to prevent Britannia from landing enough forces on Kyushu to take it. It was not news to him that the High Eunuchs viewed him and his people as an expendable buffer region that would give them time to mobilize in the event of a major war.

They could fight, and make the empire pay for it, but it would take divine intervention for Cao's Federation troops and his KDF to hold against a serious Britannian incursion. The mental image of a super typhoon sending Britannian invasion ships to the bottom of the sea put a smile back on his face. But, as they had all learned years earlier, divine winds do not blow on command.

"I suppose that leaves your operation at an end." Cao said after a long pause. "The Blood of the Samurai are finished, and there are no other such groups to try again with. And before you even think of it, do not attempt to create one."

"I wouldn't dream of it. At least, not with the situation as it is. If Clovis were still alive and in charge, I would argue." Sawasaki replied.

"If the rumors that she has captured Kusakabe are true, then it may only be a matter of time. Our best hope in that case is that he ends up dead before revealing what little he knows about China's involvement in supplying his group." Cao said, wishing they had compartmentalized the operation even further.

Kusakabe was in no way an equal partner in their relationship. He dealt with the groups used to smuggle Federation produced goods, not with Sawasaki or Cao in an even indirect fashion. He had no confirmation that they were intimately involved with helping him sow chaos in Area 11. But even without hard evidence, it could be problematic.

"I do not like having to rely on hope, General Cao." Sawasaki said. "But without any means of silencing him ourselves, it is all we have." Cao nodded agreement.

A minute later, Sawasaki was alone in his office once again, left to ponder his next move in this delicate game. His record was quite good, all things considered. Instead of ending up perforated in the ditch, as had happened to most of the old Japanese government, he had not only survived the war, but substantially increased his own personal power. Granted, his Chinese masters did not truly care about him, but he had found a way to make the relationship work so far. All he had to do was find a way to prevent the music from stopping, and keep this precarious dance going a while longer.

* * *

The days after the assassination of Prince Clovis had been chaotic, and not just in a military or political sense. While the situation on the ground had never been truly positive since the invasion, a certain sort of normal had come about.

Attacks happened, be it from 'resistance' groups or outright terrorist factions, with a regularity that most living in the country, particularly in and around areas of Britannian settlement, had been desensitized to the low intensity conflict. Hearing that some bomb went off, or a few people had been shot no longer felt like news. It was just a fact of life in Area 11.

The Blood of the Samurai had done some terrible things over the year or so that they were at the height of their strength, enough that everybody took notice, but it was nothing that stayed in the news cycle for more than a day or two. The death of Prince Clovis changed that.

The assassination was one of their largest ever attacks, and although the execution of it bled them dry, it did succeed in doing something that had been absent on the streets since the invasion: It brought the fear back.

The following two days had been tense in the extreme. People ranging from the most ragged Japanese in the ghettos, to the nobility in their palace-esque luxury felt genuinely afraid of what would come. For the Britannians, they wondered if they would be next; if a truly massive uprising was imminent. For the Japanese, it was the opposite case. Many were expecting that the Britannian military would employ genocidal brutality in reprisal for the death of a prince.

When the situation finally crystallized, nobody knew what to make of it. A supposedly deceased princess, forgotten by most, had returned to take the reigns from her brother's cold hands. A proud and strong Japanese army had marched back into the light. And...peace?

As one week became two, and then three, hope began to return. The fear of a general uprising and roads becoming rivers of blood began to fade. After all, order had been restored. The Britannians took comfort in the arrival of Princess Cornelia and her loyal forces. She would protect them.

The Japanese sought safety with the Imperial Japanese Army, that despite the name and its multiple subtle meanings, had quickly proven themselves to be the true successors of the old SDF. Instead of just standing around with their big guns and sleek knightmare frames, they had gotten to work helping people in their areas of operation. Even though there were more armed troops around than ever, life was looking up for a change.

It was only after a month that it began to sink in that the shift in leadership at the top had led to the much improved situation. The Japanese turned to the decidedly friendly troops on patrol for information, and most were surprised to find out that the new Britannian viceroy was largely responsible for the reversal of fortune.

While everybody knew about Clovis la Britannia, his excesses and incompetence, even if they rarely spoke of him in such a manner, few people knew anything concrete about Luna vi Britannia. Even the IJA troops knew little about her, although in cases where officers were present, they were happy to say that she had been working with General Katase for years in secret to make this happen. Of course, said officers knew about as much as the enlisted troops they were leading regarding the country's new leader. Most of their limited information came from the speech the general had given just before their deployment, and from a few surface level official briefings on the matter.

Regardless of the circumstances, it was obvious that their new viceroy was nothing like her predecessor. The hammer had come down on a few groups, the aforementioned Blood of the Samurai at the top of the pile, but she wasn't swinging around military force like a drunkard with an empty bottle. She had brought death and destruction to those factions, but the widespread, indiscriminate crackdown never came. It wasn't too long before people on both sides of the divide began to feel that they liked it this way. The guilty were dying, at least those perceived to be, but the innocent weren't, and that made all the difference.

When the news started to become the fact that days at a time were going by without bomb and gun attacks, or more accurately, when such attacks started to become newsworthy events again, a general sense of optimism began to spread. Perhaps the worst was truly behind them. Although it was too early to say with any real certainty, that did not stop the masses from wanting to believe it.

* * *

The changing fortunes of Area 11 were being closely watched, not only by Britannian factions, but across the planet. Some liked what they saw, some did not, but none less so than the leadership of the Chinese Federation. The rise of a new player into the game had not been anticipated, but that in of itself was not a cause for concern in their eyes. The Federation's power was vast, far more so than any upstart in Japan could hope to threaten, at least militarily.

They were worried, not by anything they saw now, but by the potential of what Luna vi Britannia was doing. Britannian royalty had always acted as a dividing force through their relentless and competitive pursuit of personal gain. Their empire had never realized its full potential as a result. Such 'normal' behavior was something they could clearly see in the rest of them, but not this princess.

Instead of wallowing in greed or preaching Britannian superiority, both racial and military, she was trying to invoke the opposite force and create unity. The reality of life in Area 11 before her arrival had been one of a tiered master class surrounded by a native population reduced to pseudo slavery. That was the way of things in the world's great powers. At least, it should be by their logic. Britannia put it more out in the open than the others, but all of the powers thought along those lines.

Of course, the eight High Eunuchs running the eastern superpower had not a care for the people of Japan, or the changes unfolding there. It was only as the ideas in them could be applied to their own realm that they were losing sleep over.

The Chinese Federation was undoubtedly the most fragile of the three great powers. Unlike Britannia or the EU, China had nothing to act as a permanent binding agent. Europe had centuries of cooperation, and a strong permanent enemy in the form of Britannia to keep them together. Britannia was endowed with the distinction of having the world's longest serving unbroken monarchy, and a culture that constantly reinforced the unity of empire, even in times of vicious internal strife.

So what did China have? An enormous military to keep their frontier provinces in line. Nearly a third of the army was needed just to hold the whole thing together. Already dealing with vast numbers of rebel forces in Indochina, India, and a decades long communist insurgency in the homeland, they had it rougher than their competitors. Strict controls on the flow of information made those threats seem much smaller than they truly were. But those that knew the truth had reason to worry.

The one patch of relative calm, surprisingly, happened to be Kyushu. While no bastion of peace and prosperity, the southern Japanese island they had conquered suffered from little in the way of organized resistance or terrorist activity. In fact, it was the least troublesome frontier zone. Despite the years of unrest and violence in Area 11 just next door, Kyushu had been a phenomenally successful experiment for China. Here was a foreign acquisition that wanted so badly to avoid being devoured by Britannia, that it was not trying to break away from China.

Spinning their absorption into the Federation as an act of protection from the Britannian Empire was a stroke of genius. Instead of rebelling against the Federation, locals with that fighting spark were instead lining up in their thousands to join the Kyushu Defense Force. By marketing it to the people as a continuation of the JSDF, instead of the cannon fodder garrison divisions they were originally intended to be, they had built a surprisingly competent army out of the locals. So much so that Chinese military officials had been giving a second look at the claim that the SDF's rapid demise was due more to the shift in Britannian doctrine, more than any underlying deficiency in the defense.

The KDF, officially under the control of Sawasaki, numbered over one hundred thousand, were reasonably well equipped, and had higher morale than most of the Federation's forces. Of course, as the High Eunuchs knew well, that was only the case because they saw themselves as the first line of defense against Britannia completing its conquest of Japan.

That had worked just fine for years, as Area 11 under Prince Clovis la Britannia roiled in internal conflict. The threat was real enough to be felt, but not so much that the Federation was overly worried about it. Now, their balance of power was under threat. The Japanese were happy to be under Federation rule, so long as they were clearly being treated better than the rest of their people in Area 11. It was a very low bar.

And so, the eastern superpower watched closely as that bar slowly began to rise. For China, it was a line in the sand. As conditions in Area 11 improved, the reality of living under Federation rule would begin to feel less and less attractive to the population of Kyushu over time. If the gap closed enough, the forces that wished to reunify Japan, currently peaceful and quiet, would be so no longer. That left China with a choice: either match the Pro Japanese trajectory that new viceroy had set, or find a new way to disrupt it. The third option of allowing Kyushu to devolve into another rebellious mess of a province was simply not up for consideration.

* * *

**1706 Hours, 06 September, 2017 ATB**

**Miyazaki City, Chinese Controlled Kyushu**

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt harried Yumi Kanagawa as she walked her path across the north side of the city. Her own personal demons had joined forces and conspired to hold her back, to keep her as the weak refugee she had been for the past seven years. Any chance she had at a happy, normal life had gone up in flames on the Fourth of August.

Nightmares of those days ravaged her night after night. Nightmares of her father, crushed beneath concrete and twisted steel from a building felled by imperial missiles. Nightmares of her mother, her body blasted to unrecognizable chunks of ruined flesh in the middle of a road by 25mm explosive shells. Terrors of her flight south, all alone in a group of twenty survivors, fearing that every shadow in the night would be the one from which the imperial soldiers appeared to finish what was started.

Those years were spent as little more than a burden to those around her. Aging relatives in Miyazaki, all that remained of her family after the Britannians came, had taken her in at ten years old. Although she had made it to Kyushu, and beyond the grasp of the invading Britannians, there had been no return to normal. She had spent the time since merely surviving. Until this week.

She didn't know what exactly had changed within her, but it was as if a switch had been flipped in her soul. When the horrors of the past had come for her once again, she did not submit. She chose to face them down; she chose to fight. It was as she reached the Yae River, and walked into the warm glow of the western sky, that she won the war within herself. She knew, as she crossed the bridge from north to south, that she had conquered the terror, and banished it for good.

Yumi Kanagawa stepped off of the bridge with new purpose in her eyes. The girl that had been born seventeen years ago to the day had not made it across to the south side with her. Her past faded away behind her as she marched onward with confidence she had never known before. It was as if all of her life before this moment was nothing more than dreams; that she was alive and awake for the first time.

Approaching the building before her, her fingers wrapped around the cold steel of the handle to the door that read 'Kyushu Defense Forces Recruiting Center' in bright red kanji. She pushed it open, and took her first step into a new life.


	3. Setup

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.

* * *

**0920 Hours, 08 September, 2017 ATB**

**HMS _Deucalion_, Tokyo, Area 11**

A Logres-class battleship had many amenities, but large secure conference rooms were not among them. So it was, that twenty three people were crammed into a room that could comfortably accommodate twelve. Cornelia li Britannia, by far the highest rank in attendance on both the military and social spectrums, chose to stand in the back of the room.

Leaning against the far wall opposite the main screen, she had a full view of the presentation about to begin, as well as the men and women in front of her. Fifteen of those present were officers from her own units, the 5th and the _Deucalion's_ crew. The remainder were all locals. At least, as much as Britannian military personnel could be considered as such just for being stationed here. That was how her new arrivals treated them, at least. Noticeably absent was any officer too closely aligned to the viceroy.

After the usual formalities were disposed of, the screen was turned on, revealing the flag and official emblem of the Imperial Japanese Army.

"As we are all aware, in seven days some us here today will be attending a major conference aboard the IJA's airship Hiryu. This briefing will be an overview of their leadership based on our latest intelligence, as well as some information provided directly from them." Gilbert Guilford began.

"Starting with their short history, the IJA are more or less an evolved form of the Japan Liberation Front, which itself acted as a successor to the former SDF services of old Japan. The JLF was founded almost entirely by members of those prior forces, and most of their core leadership were SDF officers before the invasion. This remains largely unchanged in the IJA.

Their highest ranking officer as of now is General Tatewaki Katase. He was a career JGSDF officer before our invasion, and was present at the Narita mountain installation during the war, where he remained for some time. General Katase was in overall command of Japanese forces during the Battle of Narita, more commonly referred to by us as the Disaster of Narita. He subsequently became the leader of the JLF, and now the IJA."

"What do we know about the man behind the service record?" Cornelia asked her presenting knight. A list of facts and accomplishments could tell you a lot, but not who somebody truly was.

"Very little specifics, I'm afraid. Speaking generally, we know Katase is patient, and not prone to reckless aggression. The JLF could have waged a brutal guerrilla campaign with the forces at their disposal in the years after the invasion, but instead chose to largely sit out the insurgency and build up their strength while more radical groups soaked up attention. I would say the lesson to be learned is that Katase is the cooler head in the room, and he has enough control and authority to keep his army together and focused, even years after the conquest of their country." Guilford explained.

The knight had spent the past few days digging up as much as he could about the IJA's leadership in preparation for this briefing. It wasn't as much as he would have liked, but good enough with the time constraint factored in.

Cornelia briefly wondered what it must have been like for the leader of the IJA. Could she have done the same? A few moments of soul searching forced Cornelia to silently admit to herself that she probably did not have that level of willpower. Katase had chosen to play the long game, and prioritized force preservation over everything else, even as his homeland was being overrun by an overwhelming foe.

Her first thought was that it was cowardice; that he should have fought and died with the rest of the Japanese forces that opposed the invasion. But she had to accept that, in the face of an impossible fight, not dying was a win in itself. Now here he was, only a few years later leading a force that probably could have pasted the old JSDF just as hard as the imperial military had. Just as she began to realize that it took bravery of a different sort to do what he did, Guilford continued onward.

"Also of note, and particular importance for our purpose here today is Lieutenant General Kyoshiro Tohdoh."

A file photo of Tohdoh appeared on the screen. The image was clearly out of date, probably taken shortly after the invasion, as his uniform displayed his rank as an OF-5 Colonel, not his current OF-7 Lieutenant General.

"General Tohdoh is stationed aboard the Hiryu, and is in overall command of both the ship itself, as well as all attached land and air forces. Also a career JGSDF officer, originally from armor specifically, Tohdoh has played a role in every single military defeat inflicted upon us by their forces during and after the war. He is widely and justifiably regarded as their best combat leader and battlefield commander.

In addition, he is also an extremely formidable individual fighter. Tohdoh is known to be a talented martial artist, an expert in combat with firearms and blades, and an outstanding knightmare pilot. Before commanding the Hiryu, he was the leader of a group of elite JLF knightmare pilots known as the Four Holy Swords. It is believed that all of them are also stationed aboard the Hiryu, and we know for a fact that Colonel Asahina, a member of that group, is acting as the ship's XO."  
Guilford could see the looks on some of the faces before him. Army officers, especially from land combat roles, commanding an airship? Ridiculous. Only one man spoke up to ask about that. General Alexander was army, and he looked a bit queasy at the idea of being put in charge of a warship, even a giant flying one loaded with cannons that put anything dirtside to shame.

"Excuse me, Sir Guilford, but do we know why exactly they're putting ground force officers in those sorts of commands?" Alexander asked and Guilford nodded. The unsaid part written all over his face was 'are they stupid, or just that desperate?'

"Although it may seem strange to us, They are a single combined service, at least for now. Despite their status as direct descendants of Japan's prewar SDF, they have all but abandoned their old force structure. There is no official reason given, but a large majority of the Japanese troops that survived the invasion were JGSDF units, their land army. The JLF that followed was largely a continuation of that force, using the same rank structure and uniforms. Because they no longer have a separate navy or air force, my understanding is that their officers go where they can do the most good, regardless of what that might be. As a result, their promotions and career paths are unpredictable and disorderly by our standards." He explained.

The officers in the room mulled that over for a silent half minute. All of them thought that was strange, at least by comparison to other major armed forces, but most of them soon came to understand the necessity of it, given their current situation. Still, even that did little to make the fact that an armor officer had transitioned to a special knightmare frame force, and then was put in such a command role, feel any less alien.

"Lastly we cannot ignore the role of her highness, Luna vi Britannia." Guilford continued. He paid no attention to the subdued muttering that followed his words, but only watched as Cornelia's expression hardened, although not quite into a scowl.

"While Princess Luna holds no rank in their command structure, at least not officially, she more or less acts as the IJA's civilian leader. Despite what they've printed on the tin, the Imperial Japanese Army is a force personally loyal to her, and still regards the empire proper as a potential adversary. At least, that can be said of their upper leadership.

Exactly what the sentiment is down in their enlisted ranks is beyond our knowledge for the moment, but considering all that she has done for them, I would not be surprised to find that she is well liked. That is no doubt aided by the fact that she grew up here, has a fluent grasp of their language and culture, and openly considers these islands to be home." Guilford continued.

"From my own conversations with her," Cornelia spoke from the other end of the room. "It is her belief that the empire is fragmenting to the point that an internal conflict, perhaps even a full on civil war is inevitable. In particular, she expects Second Prince Schneizel and First Princess Guinevere to be the main belligerents in such a war. Luna has told me in no uncertain terms that her native army is to act as her core force, which is beyond the reach of imperial politics or machinations."

"It's hard to imagine that not working." General Alexander interjected. Clearly, the idea that they could fall under some other imperial influence was unthinkable to the man, and for good reason. Without Luna, there was no question that they would be nothing less than hostile to the empire.

"Indeed. Which bring us to the topic of what the Imperial Japanese Army actually is as a fighting force." Guilford continued the briefing. "We believe that the IJA has upwards of a quarter million personnel, of which approximately half are dedicated combat troops. Analysts I've spoken with believe they can field ten to twelve divisions of first rate quality, on par with anything we have.

After action reports from the recent joint operation involving Margrave Gottwald and an IJA tank unit led by a Captain Hidaka show that Gottwald praised their performance in the engagement. Despite the close proximity of forces, including knightmare frames engaged at melee range, there were no green on blue incidents reported. Assuming Captain Hidaka's unit is representative of their combat forces quality, they are on par with us.

If they scrape the bottom of the barrel, a further six to eight divisions of lesser quality, equipment, and training may be available in an emergency. These would undoubtedly be inferior fighting units, and fielding them would likely cripple many of their support functions."

There were slightly louder murmurs throughout the room after that statement. Britannia only had sixteen divisions in Area 11, including Cornelia's 5th. Seven of which were second tier garrison units, meant to keep the Area pacified. Their track record in that regard was not something those in this room would praise. Nobody present would bet on them holding if it came down to a stand up fight.

The idea was to leave enough forces in the east to prevent Area 11 from falling apart, but not so many that the Chinese Federation would view their presence as an imminent threat. Kyushu was, after all, right next door.

"So, you're saying that we're more or less evenly matched?" Alexander asked.

"Not exactly, general." Guilford explained. "With the limited time I have had to examine their capabilities, it is my opinion that we would in fact lose a battle for control of Area 11 against the IJA, if it ever came to that. However, what they have is what they have. The IJA is powerful upfront, but they cannot reinforce as we can. After all, they only have a few hidden bases, while we are the most powerful empire in history. They could take Area 11, but they could not hold it against our counter attack, to say nothing of what the Chinese would do to exploit such a conflict. They know that as well as we do. They could win battles against us, but not a war. If they tried, they would only end up in a far worse position, if not outright destroyed.

The part that everyone in this room is going to have to work on is understanding that we are not talking about a group of rebels that want to kick out the empire and go back to their old ways. Their strategy is smart, dangerous, and not something we ever expected to have to face. Whether or not they become our enemies in reality, and not just in war plans, will depend on politics. That part, at least, does not have a military solution."

The room sat silent for a long minute as they digested the implications of what they had just heard. There was no mold in the Britannian military cookie cutter for a situation like Area 11, and they all knew it. Solving this would require creativity.

"I wonder." Cornelia mused aloud. "If perhaps we're the empire, trying to kick out the rebels to remain in our old ways." That turned a lot of heads, but earned no responses. From the looks on their faces, they all wanted to say something, but could not find the words. Whether that was from simply lacking the means to express their complex thoughts, or just a lack of a means to do so that would be acceptable in front of royalty, Cornelia did not know.

"That is her goal, after all." Cornelia continued uninterrupted. "To change us. This whole exercise is taking place because my sister believes, truly believes, that she can change Britannia; remake Britannia, but not destroy it. In that sense, she's the most insidious sort of rebel. Her objective is not to bring down the empire, but to transform it by her will. This army of her's is as much a statement against Britannian racial superiority as it is a fighting force, and from what we've seen so far, it's not a weak argument."

"Pardon, your highness." The general spoke. "While I may not have been in theater for the invasion of these islands, I have studied the campaign extensively. We crushed the natives by a combination of surprise, overwhelming force, and novel tactics with the use of knightmare frames. They were in no way prepared to resist what we hit them with, by design of course. It seems clear that they have learned much from their defeat, and adapted well."

"You're right about that." Cornelia muttered to herself before speaking up for the rest of the room. "I'm not going to make some judgment about what the Elevens' place in the empire should be, that's my sister's mess. She wanted it, and she can have it." a few muffled chuckles could be heard from around the cramped space. "But regardless of what that may be, it is a fact that they have more support and military might than any mere rebel group.

Right now, we are not shooting at each other, and for the sake of stability and the empire's sakuradite supply, I want it to stay that way. However, if we must face them in battle, remember that they will fight like trained soldiers, not a pack of monkeys with guns. If Princess Luna is right about her fears for Britannia's future, then I want those forces on our side. It pains me to say, but her native divisions may end up deciding the fate of our empire." Cornelia took a deep breath and let out a sigh that made her seem a bit more mortal for those in attendance. She continued.

"There is plenty of tension between our forces. In particular, certain garrison units are not happy that the IJA is openly operating in their AOs. It should be obvious to all of you that we cannot afford to appear weak on China's doorstep. Internal fighting and factionalism, even if it does not rise to the level of an outright shooting war, is not something we can tolerate."

A wave of general agreement followed as she concluded. Regardless of what they thought of the IJA, looking like fools before the largest army on earth would not be a path to success.

The meeting went on for another three hours, although little of much interest to the princess happened in that time. It was more for the benefit of her huddled together subordinates. She tuned most of it out, instead taking the time to reflect on her current situation.

Cornelia didn't like the game she had found herself forced to play. She had never trained for it, had little experience in it, and would much rather be back in the sandbox where her problems generally boiled down to shoot the enemy. Now, she was trying to keep that from happening.

The IJA and the Britannian military were theoretically on the same side. She controlled one half, and her sister the other half, and neither of them wanted another war. Their immediate subordinates largely reflected that viewpoint on both sides. On paper, that should have made it a done deal. Reality, however, was an inconvenient bitch that did her best to shake things up.

Both sides would have to work out an extensive plan to minimize conflict and maximize cooperation. Although the principal terrorist threat had been defeated, the IJA was still comprised of the native population of a country that her empire had brutally conquered less than a decade ago. The empire needed stability in the east, and that meant making nice with a force that, under only slightly different circumstances, she would have been engaged in a shooting war with.

Joint operations were a start. The raid that captured Kusakabe, and took down the Blood of the Samurai, left her feeling hopeful that it could be done. Then again, special forces were the most highly disciplined and focused troops on the ground. Whether the same level of professionalism would filter down to swathes of lower enlisted troops remained to be seen. Gottwald working with Hidaka was a start though. She would need to meet with them, set up training, familiarization exercises, and…

Cornelia stopped that line of thought as she struggled to contain a yawn. It wouldn't do for those in the room to think they were boring her to sleep with their speaking time. No, she was just tired of thinking about it. The only certainty that she left the meeting with was that she needed to get over to the wardroom and find some damn coffee.

* * *

**1950 Hours, 08 September, 2017 ATB**

**Viceroy's Palace, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11**

CC let out a deep, exhausted sigh as she made it to the end of the stack of papers on the desk before her. Paperwork, she decided, was the worst torture she had the misfortune of sampling, and she had sampled almost everything in her hundreds of years. It was not what she wanted to be doing with her time, but the immortal witch was more than willing to suffer through it, if it meant taking some of the stress off her beloved princess.

Said princess was only a few meters away. One good look at her desk, and what she had to handle, and CC would have gladly gone back to digging holes in the ground for the stupidly brave Frenchmen that had tried to charge Britannian forward trenches through clouds of poison gas a century earlier.

She thought about going over to her. Maybe a nice shoulder massage would help with her tension, and perhaps put a smile on her face. CC licked her dry lips. Of course, what she really wanted to do was march Luna back to their suite, throw her onto their heavenly bed, and ravish her until the sun came up the next day. Unfortunately, she knew that Luna's sense of duty and work ethic did not have room for the hours she would need to make that happen. So, she settled for a shoulder massage. At least, that was the idea as she started moving.

She gave that up after three steps. Like hell she wasn't going to get exactly what she wanted.

CC came up behind Luna and started rubbing her shoulders. She leaned in, spilled her lime green hair down Luna's chest, and kissed the back of her neck as she felt the muscles beneath her fingers begin to relax.

"That's really distracting." Luna said halfheartedly, almost as a purr.

"Do you want me to stop?"

"No." Luna muttered quietly, guiltily. "Don't stop." CC did as she wanted, and kept on rubbing. Now thoroughly distracted from her desk, Luna closed her eyes and leaned back into it. She couldn't see CC's happy smile, but she could feel it.

"Come to bed with me." The limette whispered in her left ear. "I'll make you feel like a fairy tale princess. No more of this dreadful real princess business." She tempted.

"What fairy tale is this supposed to be?" Luna asked, a smile of her own forming.

"The one where our dear princess is captured by an evil witch. But after a night in captivity, she decides that ol' prince charming has nothing on the witch. And so, the princess and the witch fall in love and live happily ever after." CC explained in her best impersonation of a storytelling voice.

"And I'm assuming the witch gets to spend her days having her way with her new princess?"

"My dear, that's why it's 'happily ever after', not 'resignedly ever after'." At hearing that, Luna let out the purest giggle CC had heard from her in days. She really smiled after that. Luna needed it more than she would ever admit.

"What happens to prince charming in your story?" Luna asked her.

"I heard it began to rain as he walked back to his palace all alone with an empty heart, and only kilometers of muddy road to keep him company." She smiled.

"One more hour." Luna told her in a more serious voice, but with a smirk that told CC she had won. "Then, we're going to find out which one of us is the witch in that story."

"Deal." CC told her. "But not a moment more. If you keep me waiting, it'll be the wicked witch for you tonight."

Their fun over for the next fifty nine minutes and change, the immortals got back to working on a very serious matter. The tortuous paperwork before them was not simply a heap of formal busywork, but instead part of the implementation for Luna's transformation of the country from Britannian Area 11 into something more like Japan within the empire.

At the core of the issue she had to find a solution to was the fact that the Britannian establishment, especially the nobility, was very much opposed to any sort of measures to increase the rights of the native population. There were several reasons for their resistance to the idea, but most were cultural at their roots. After all, there was a reason that the empire tried to do a thorough job of stripping conquered populations of their cultural identity. Now, Luna was stuck trying to unwind that mess. It was not a neat and pretty problem.

There was no way to please all of her opponents in this regard, at least not at first. Too many conflicting views and opinions were floating around to make it easy. Some were publicly happy at her very effective methods for suppressing terrorism, mostly because they worked. While at the same time, and sometimes on the same talk show, others were horrified that the natives now had a legitimized military force operating openly in the country. She could go on and on about the reasons they disliked the idea, but what she needed was to find something they all had in common.

Luna's answer turned out to be simple in theory: money. The common factor between all of the people whose opinions actually mattered to her were wealthy, and most were business owners. Thus, the solution she ended up pushing involved a boat load of incentives to get these people to start employing Japanese workers.

The idea in its purest form was simple enough; She would get them to back a proposal that would implement some very basic rights for anyone designated a Number, pay them a minimum wage for work done, and streamline the application process for Honorary Britannian status. In return for their support, they would have access to cheap labor, expanded markets, and help mitigate risk by reducing the crime and sabotage associated with using forced or undocumented labor. Not what Luna ultimately wanted for them, but it was a start, and a step up from being a pseudo slave class.

The problem was actually getting support for her plan. While some of the people she needed to make this work could be...persuaded to change their minds the easy way, many more would require actual work. Thus, she had begun engaging with fifty six of the most powerful and influential Britannians in Japan, with each ending up in individual negotiations.

It was tedious in the extreme, but as with her wider plan for the empire, if she could get enough of them on board, and make success stories out of them, holdouts could be more easily converted.

At the top of that list was none other than her old student council president, Milly Ashford. Her favorite countess employed a substantial number of Japanese workers, with wages and working conditions better than anything else available to people of their class in Britannian society. Her newly remade Ashford Heavy Industries had already won several major orders from weapons hungry Britannians back in the western hemisphere. Several of those were larger repeats after small initial test orders. Clearly, they liked the new hardware proof marked by AHI, and stamped 'Made in Japan'.

Milly's factory was running three shifts non stop. Apparently a ten percent discount against their mainland competitors' prices was enough to get her business moving, especially with the help of customers whose own interests ran counter to some major player or another in the domestic Britannian arms industry. Britannian politics could get very messy, and the military industrial complex was a zoo at the best of times.

Luna had been holding up Milly's success for all to see, while at the same time trying to get the others on her list to follow Milly's example. Some had been easy, almost effortlessly so. Others were a bit of work, such as what she and her dearly beloved were doing now instead of rolling around in bed. Luna had simply written off a few of them as being just too racist and cemented in their ways to swallow the change she wanted to bring. She hoped they would choke on it.

Getting this done would also have the added benefit of increasing the tax base. Even with lower wages, legitimately employed Japanese workers could be taxed to help pay for all of the myriad projects she was working on to help them. More legitimate employees meant tax revenue, less crime, and would soon lead to improved standards of living across the country.

Britannia had taken a sledge hammer to Japanese society with their invasion, and putting the pieces back together was not proving to be easy, especially as she had to convince Britannians to start working with them. At least she could take comfort in the fact that this problem was not even in the same league as some of the things she had cleaned up in a previous life.

Oh, what she wouldn't give for the Geass of Absolute Obedience at that moment. Despite all of the trouble, pain, and endless heartache it caused Lelouch during the deceptively short time he had it, at times like this she missed having the ability to hack the human mind with a few choice words and a bit of eye contact. She would have been glad to have the option to sacrifice morality for a reduction of paperwork.

The idea of trying to give it to somebody appeared in her mind for barely a second before being beaten down and locked away. Anyone she tried it on would have to be killed, either immediately if the Geass was not what she wanted, or before they grew too powerful. Morality was something she could live without, but Geass Order style human experimentation was just too much.

An hour later, 2100 on the dot, CC declared that the time was up and Luna was going to keep her promise, one way or another. Luna stopped what she was doing and a moment later found her left wrist in CC's grip. Never before had somebody felt so relieved to be dragged off to a dark room. As Luna would learn that night, she was undoubtedly the captive princess of the story, at the mercy of the witch.

* * *

**1800 Hours, 09 September, 2017 ATB**

**Tea Garden, Mt Fuji Complex, Area 11**

Kaguya Sumeragi, the youngest member of the organization known to most as the Six Houses of Kyoto, sipped her steaming cup of fresh green tea with a neutral face. The last few weeks had been particularly interesting for her. Sent by the Six Houses to meet with the new Britannian colonial government in an attempt to salvage their suddenly precarious position, she had instead found an old friend, and shifting priorities.

The meeting of the leadership she was currently partaking in had started just over two hours ago, and she had spent most of it reporting to them what she had done while in Tokyo. Rather, she spent the time reporting a story of what she had done in Tokyo. Luna vi Britannia was the factor that changed the entire vector of what she had been sent there to do.

Despite what had been discussed prior to her departure, Kaguya's previous association with the princess had ended up as a lot more than simply a means of gaining access. After a few hours with her, Kaguya had come to the conclusion that her old shogi opponent was far more trustworthy than four of the five men in front of her, and had better interests in mind.

She still had not gotten over the undeniable fact that with the sole exception of Taizo Kirihara, the old men at the table viewed her as just a little girl out of her depth, and only tolerated her holding her position because everyone else that should have was already dead.

It would have been a fair point, if they had found some real faults to lean on. But as it stood, her only failings in their eyes were the double disadvantage of being young and female. At least Luna had been willing to let her vent those particular frustrations over an amazing dinner her palace cooks had come up with. There were not many topics Kaguya agreed with Britannia on, but real gender equality was at the top.

As it was, she went on sipping tea, and giving a detailed report of events that had only happened in the scheming minds of two conspiratorial young women. Kaguya had learned over the course of preparing for this that she had a hidden talent as an actress. These men were buying the snake oil laced bullshit she was selling them as if it were gold and diamonds. Perhaps it really was as Luna had told her; that old men were simply predisposed to believing what a young woman had to say.

Whether or not that was true mattered little at the moment. Kaguya was forced to consider just how much tea her bladder could hold before the urge to empty it grew too strong to ignore. However, she had her instructions. Leaving the room now would be a complication that simply didn't need to happen.

She had just finished pouring her fifth refill, and raised the traditional cup to her lips when her wait ended. Without so much as a whisper that something out of the ordinary was about to happen, four of the six figures at the table suddenly lost their brains. It took every bit of discipline Kaguya had to remain calm, hold in a reflexive scream, and not pee herself as the fresh corpses succumbed to the call of gravity. Fortunately, the cup was shielding most of her face, and so at least that part of her was spared the spray of blood and brain matter.

From behind the dead men, four black clad figures rose from the koi pond, suppressed rifles at the ready. The rebreathers the men were wearing fell down to hang around their necks. They quickly swept the room, and found that there was nobody unexpected present.

Kaguya realized in that moment that they probably had come in through the water system. There was hidden pipe work that led in and out of the pond, which was used to keep the water as perfectly clean as technology could make it. It just so happened that the entrance, and probably the pipes themselves, were big enough for a man to fit through.

The man in front of her spoke something she did not catch in faintly accented English into his radio. It sounded almost native Britannian, but she couldn't be sure. He was quiet, as his only intended audience was on the other end of his helmet mic.

Kaguya couldn't hear the response that came back, but the man visibly relaxed, at least as much as a keyed up special forces soldier on a mission could. She had met him once before, at least she thought she had since she had never actually seen his face. This was the leader of a small team Luna had introduced as Reaper 2. She had explained that they were known in military jargon as operators; they were surgeons for whatever problems she pointed them at. Kaguya didn't know what to make of that at the time, but she did now.

Kaguya had not had much up close and personal experience with violence and death before this moment, but something about the way these men had killed those they had come here for was mesmerizing. It was so precise and perfectly synchronized that Luna's words gained new meaning as the blood dried on her clothes.

"Ms. Sumeragi." The deadly warrior spoke. His voice carried a gentle professionalism that instantly led her to feel that this was not some thuggish killer standing before her, but a skilled craftsman that took pride in his work, even if he could not take personal credit for it. It was distorted through his helmet, intentionally if she remembered correctly, but not enough to strip his words of all emotion.

"Is the rest of the operation faring well?" She asked him, leaving a still shocked Kirihara to watched in silence. A quick glance told her that the old man was probably more stunned than he had ever been in his life. At least, that had to be true for the time her short life overlapped with his.

"Other IJA Special Forces Group teams are reporting success in accomplishing their own objectives here at Fuji, and several other targets. Resistance is minimal. We will have total control of the Fuji facility within half an hour." The Reaper man explained.

"Well, for better or worse, it's the end of an era." Kaguya said, coming to terms that she had just thoroughly betrayed the last of old, prewar Japan's power base.

"For the better, I would imagine." He said. "Princess Luna thinks highly of you both. She will undoubtedly have important jobs for you in her plans for Japan. For what it's worth, while I cannot reveal my name or face, I can say that I was a member of the JGSDF's special forces before the invasion. With that, I believe that Princess Luna has our best interests in mind with her plans for Japan. We do what we can to make it happen."

Kaguya metaphorically chewed on his words as she glanced around, watching the others check and secure the bodies of those they had killed. It was a strange feeling, what she had just done, but less important at that instant than the fact that her bladder control was about to fail. Perhaps that was a good thing, as the physical necessity kept her from thinking about the fact that she was covered by the spray of blood from the men she helped kill.

"Please excuse me." She hurriedly said as she rushed off for the tea house. The black clad soldiers likely thought that she was going off to vomit at the sight of four ventilated bodies, but in truth, she just had a litre and change of unwanted liquid to get rid of. A minute later, what felt like the strongest wave of relief Kaguya had ever experienced washed over her. Whether it was from finally no longer having to hold it in, or that the day's gruesome events had been concluded, she could not tell. Probably some combination of both. She didn't care either way; it just felt better now.

When she emerged from the tea house, it was as if a new chapter in her life had begun, and rightly so. Kyoto was gone, and her future was no longer to be dictated by a pack of old men so set in their ways that they could not see her true talents and potential. Men like them had their shot, and they had blown it in spectacularly disastrous fashion many times in the last seven years. Their Japan was gone. Now it was her turn.


	4. Perspective

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.

AN: If you're looking for more good stuff to read as earth shuts down, go try A Young Woman's Political Record, and A Young Girl's Delinquency Record over in the Youjo Senki section. The Leader is also quite good, but it's quite a bit darker than those two.

If you haven't watched Youjo Senki, I strongly recommend it. My only real criticism of the anime is that it's too damn short.

* * *

**0920 Hours, 15 September, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 3500m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**Flight Deck**

Luna vi Britannia felt an almost overwhelming sense of pride as she finally got to experience the deck plates of the _Hiryu _beneath her own boots. Her immediate thoughts were a direct comparison to the _Ikaruga _of the old Black Knights. She scoffed.

_Hiryu _was in an entirely different league from her counterpart in the First World. There were sacrifices made in the design to make it this powerful, but this was a new ship for the next war. She didn't need it to double as a submarine, and no amount of stealth technology could hide a monster of this scale. It had the firepower, protection, and endurance to avoid her otherworldly predecessor's fate if faced with anything short of direct nuclear strikes.

Standing here inside this physical manifestation of the future she wanted put a genuine smile on her face. This was to be the ark that saw her vision through to reality. She felt an incredible sense of power, unrivalled by anything before in this second life. Her only comparison was the day her former self stood in Excelica Palace after eight long years of exile, and bent the world to his will with a few words. This ship may not have been a solid replacement for Geass, but damn did it feel good. For a few minutes, Luna let herself forget the reason she was even here as she took it all in.

She still had plenty of time to burn until the assembly would begin, and thought of a novel way to use it. She departed the flight deck with Captain Urabe in tow, and went off on a bit of an unplanned adventure.

For the next two hours, Luna went about the lower decks and put on a good show of supporting her troops. For most of the IJA personnel on the ship, their only real knowledge of her had come through official channels. To some, having command reveal that they were bankrolled by, and effectively in the employ of a Britannian princess doubtlessly must have left an unpleasant aftertaste. While there had been no real incidents of note, she needed support down to the metaphorical bedrock.

In pursuit of that objective she went through about a sixth of the massive ship, meeting and speaking to hundreds of IJA soldiers along the way. Luna had learned the power of human confidence and the power of the grape vine the hard way, and took full advantage of this opportunity. All of those that crossed paths with her, no matter their preconceptions or beliefs about what command had told them about her, came away with two important facts. First, here was a real Britannian princess that had a fluent grasp of Japanese, and could probably pass for a native to anyone that couldn't see her face. Second, she had come down in person to meet the mere mortals, and appeared happy to do so.

It was rare enough for senior officers to go out of their way to personally take the temperature of their units, but this was something else. In two hours, Luna transformed herself in the eyes of all in her path from a distant idea laden with negative preconceptions to a real person they could form their own opinions of. She suspected, judging from the reactions she got along the way, that those opinions would be almost uniformly positive.

The best part for her was that she did not have to put on a mask and pretend to be somebody else while spewing twisted crap tailor made for the target audience.

As Luna departed the area bound for the ventral observation deck, she left behind several hundred people that all had new roles to play, whether they knew it or not.

* * *

**1031 Hours, 15 September, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 3500m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**Flight Deck **

Countess Millicent Ashford took a deep breath of dry recycled air as she prepared to exit the transport aircraft. This was going to be a big day, topped only by the confrontation with her biological parents months earlier. The occasion being a very high level meeting of all the major players in the country.

As the president of Japan's only existing domestically headquartered arms manufacturer, what she did and said in the next few hours would determine the future of her company. Luna wanted her to succeed, but it was not Luna that she needed to convince. Her goal today was none other than Princess Cornelia.

With Cornelia now in charge of all Britannian military forces in the country, the more in depth part of Luna's plans to cement her allegiance could begin. Milly's part in the operation was to convince her to start buying locally produced hardware, instead of having more of it shipped from the homeland in North America. While Cornelia had arranged for a large influx of factory fresh equipment to arrive simultaneously with her most loyal troops, the forces that were already in Japan could definitely do for some upgrades. Perhaps she could be convinced to upgrade her own forces and pass out the government issue kit as hand me downs.

As cross training and familiarization operations began between Luna's Japanese forces and Cornelia's Britannians, the latter would be getting hands on experience with some kit that was objectively superior to what the empire issued them. Among the items she would be pushing hard for them to adopt were the Type 14 MBT, specifically the B and T variants, as well as the Type 17 Yumi, a brand new rapid fire 155mm artillery system designed to be operated by a crew of knightmare frames instead of artillerymen on foot.

Milly was pulled from her thoughts of the near future by a hand on her left shoulder. Standing beside her, Rivalz Cardemonde gave her a reassuring smile. She felt comforted, and a bit more confident with his presence, which after a moment felt a bit ironic since she was usually the one doing the comforting in their relationship.

The doors opened, revealing a space that left the pair in awe. Milly had seen a lot of military hardware in her life, but never before had she been so dwarfed by it.

The flight deck of the IJAS _Hiryu _was a true marvel of engineering. Unlike the RBN's surface carriers, the ship's quad seven hundred meter runways were fully enclosed within the hull, only open at either end by way of absolutely titanic segmented armoured doors that could retract up into the ceiling. She could see the blue sky at the far end of the artificial cavern, past rows of other aircraft. It felt more like an underground tunnel than a ship or an aircraft.

Stepping down to the deck, they were greeted by a familiar face. Standing a few meters away in a crisp uniform was Colonel Asahina. Milly had only met the Japanese officer once before, during the setup of her factory complex's R&D section, but it was still better than nothing.

"Countess Ashford." He greeted as the distance closed. "I trust the flight went well?"

"It did. Very smooth too. I like these new transports." She commented, glancing back at the aircraft, a Type 10 tilt wing VTOL. The most prominent feature of the design were the engine pods, the main ones located on each wingtip, and two smaller pods on the tail.

"They're new in production, but it's not a new design. As you can guess by the designation, they were originally developed over a decade ago, and were formally adopted by the SDF only weeks before the invasion. Just over a dozen were ever delivered, but fortunately for us, two of them happened to be in Hokkaido at the time. Much of the production line equipment also survived the war, which we later recovered for our own use." He explained.

"Reminds me of the V22." Milly commented in comparison to the tilt rotor dropship the Royal Marines employed. Asahina nodded.

"Similar concept, but with better engines and a more refined airframe. Its primary function is as a light transport, but it can also pull double duty as a gunship if we put the heavier nose gun on and attach the wing pylons for missile and rocket mounts. Don't worry, you'll get some more time in one relatively soon."

"So, are we early or late?" She asked as they began walking away from the transport.

"Early. The conference won't officially start until noon, and we still have several aircraft inbound. We're waiting for everyone to arrive before we begin."

"Care to show us around this amazing ship, Colonel?"

"Of course, Countess Ashford. At least, what we have enough time to see." Asahina agreed.

* * *

**1031 Hours, 15 September, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 3500m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**Command Center**

Few things had the impact to truly awe Cornelia li Britannia at this point in her life. She had seen her share of blinding heights and dark depths; everything from miracles of military might, to Empress Marianne's assassination and the year of personal hell that followed. She would have considered herself quite numb to almost anything the world could throw at her, at least until her sister's fateful reappearance. If there was one thing Luna could do for her like none other, it was to bring back the sense of wonder she had thought long lost.

Upon arrival to the _Hiryu_, Cornelia had requested a tour of the ship. She had been expecting any number of ways that they would try to deny her, stonewall her, or just take her for a quick loop around what passed for the 'tourist' sights, as much any place on a military vessel could be called such. Instead, Cornelia was met by a hard looking IJA woman and six men in nearly identical black tactical gear. The woman was wearing a normal uniform that identified her as Colonel Chiba. She vaguely remembered that there was an officer named Chiba that was a close associate of General Tohdoh. Of course he would send one of his trusted lieutenants.

The men with her, and she had to assume they were men, given the opaque face plates on their helmets, she instantly recognized as some flavor of elite special forces. They wore no identifying markings; neither rank nor any unit distinctions, only a velcro japanese flag to break up their otherwise monotone black attire. But they just had that unexplainable aura of finely honed lethality about them, that she could just tell by being in their presence.

Cornelia correctly assumed that they were the 'Reapers' that she had heard of, and had taken part in the operation against Kusakabe. Whether or not it was the same team that partook in that same raid, she did not know.

Colonel Chiba clearly did not like her, that much she picked up on almost immediately. But even so, it was just as obvious that she had orders to show her the sights, and the colonel made no attempt to skimp out. Indeed, Cornelia got her tour, and it left her feeling something she was not used to: jealousy.

This monster of a ship put her _Deucalion _to shame. It had more guns, bigger guns, better shield technology, battalions of embarked troops, hundreds of vehicles and aircraft, and it never ran out of energy thanks to its bloody magical power plants. The salt in the wound was that these people had built this amazing ship, no, it was more akin to a flying citadel than a 'ship', _inside of a mountain._ She outright did not believe that, at least until they showed her images and video of the titanic artificial cavern with the same ship still under construction within, and shots from several angles of her launch.

Cornelia had spent all of her life believing that she was a part of the greatest civilization in history, and the empire's feats of engineering backed that claim up. Problem was, she had just gotten a look inside the belly of a beast Britannia had no real answer for. Were they still on top, when a remnant of a conquered people could produce feats of engineering that put the empire's best to shame?

Her thoughts were tugged away from the _Hiryu's _construction by their arrival at the ship's main command center. There was a line on the floor, indicating where the blast doors would meet to seal up the room. She only had to wonder for a moment if she would be allowed to cross it, before being led in.

The room was absolutely massive, easily triple the size of the largest such comparable section of a Britannian ship, air or surface. The interior of the room held a shape roughly similar to that of the ship itself. There was a raised section directly in front of them, which was obviously a command position. All of the dozens of other stations were directly visible from there.

Standing directly in front of her was a man she had never met, but instantly recognized.

"General Tohdoh." She said,

"Princess Cornelia." He answered.

They stood silent for several long moments, staring each other down, each the most accomplished soldier of their respective forces. For Cornelia, it was arguably the strangest moment of her life. Here was a man that had not only fought the empire, her empire, but had won and lived to tell the tale. There were suddenly so many questions she wanted to ask him as curiosity overwhelmed her sensibilities at this rarest of moments. She opened her mouth, closed it, and eventually blurted out a question.

"What really happened at Narita?"

Britannian accounts of the battle were incomplete and often contradictory. There were so few survivors that it was impossible to piece together from her side alone. Although Cornelia had not been personally involved in what the empire knew as the Disaster of Narita, by all accounts it had begun as Japan's final hour, and ended as her finest hour against impossible odds.

That, however, did not stop the rumors and speculation from flying. While Dorothea Enrst had not been officially blamed for the disaster, seeing as how she did not survive the events in question, and was a member of the Rounds, more often than not she was quietly accused of incompetence when the subject came up. Of course, those critics tended to blame her less than 'pure' heritage, rather than provide any evidence of military malpractice. Even at that height, with all of her accomplishments, she could not escape the disadvantage of being a brown woman in Britannia. The unofficial Britannian side of the story boiled down to she had _somehow_ screwed up spectacularly, and Tohdoh had been just sharp enough to take advantage of the chaos.

For Cornelia, that day was personal. It was the event in which her once thought dead sister had won the loyalty of the JSDF's remnants. She knew that the rumint was far off target at best, fabricated bullshit at worst. Of course she also knew that Luna vi Britannia had participated in that battle, something that was not public knowledge. What exactly had Luna done that day? Now was her chance to at the very least ask the question to a man that had been there, on the side that won.

"Luna saved us." Tohdoh answered her. "Without so much as firing a single shot, she gave us a future from certain oblivion."

"How?" Cornelia asked incredulously. "She was Ten. Years. Old. How could one child have had such an impact?"

"She taught us how to kill Glasgows with tanks." Tohdoh said, remembering it with near perfect clarity. He would never forget it for as long as he lived. "We held most of our armor in reserve, concealed on the slope as Ernst's forces advanced. We gave token resistance from the summit, just enough to keep them coming. The imperial troops were drunk on overconfidence; they never saw the trap they were advancing toward. Then in one decisive moment, we smashed their front line. Suddenly facing massed armor on higher ground, the Glasgows and infantry never had a chance.

As all of the imperial attention was caught on their reversal of fortune, I personally led our own force of knightmare frames, Glasgows captured with Luna's assistance, to destroy a vulnerable battery of SPGs, and then to assault the G1 directly. The Britannians routed once their artillery support cut out and command stopped responding."

Cornelia watched as Tohdoh smiled in reliving the memories. She knew that she should have felt something negative at a recounting of her countrymen's defeat, but the only feeling that came through was an overwhelming desire to have been there. Could she have turned it around? Could she have done what Dorothea Ernst could not? Yes! Screamed in her thoughts.

"Wishing you had been there?" Tohdoh asked her with a grin. Was it that obvious? Then again, this man would know her reputation well.

"Yes!" She repeated, aloud this time. She couldn't help it.

"It wouldn't have changed a thing." Tohdoh said with conviction. "After Iwakuni and Hiroshima, I believed in her, even as a child. Luna would have defeated anyone that day. No matter the challenge, she would have thought her way out of it. Even if you had been there."

Those words struck her right in the chest. The truth was, Cornelia had no idea if she could have turned the tide of that battle, and her belief that she could stood only upon emotion and self confidence. So, being faced with a man that had actually been there, and had such faith in the story that little Princess Luna had been their salvation, Cornelia wondered to herself if his version of the story was true after all; if perhaps a ten year old princess had enacted a true miracle of arms on that mountain. After all, Tohdoh was here, Ernst was not.

* * *

**1142 Hours, 15 September, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 3500m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**Ventral Observation Deck**

The Hiryu's ventral observation deck was a marvel to behold. Located below the ship's armor belt, and primarily constructed of thick ballistic glass, it offered a nearly unrivalled view of the world below. Said view was available in person, or as a feed from the hundreds of cameras and sensors built into the deck's hexagonal honeycomb metal frame. As it was today, the center of the area was dominated by a large round table. Those that would shortly be there, would literally be sitting above the land they were aboard to discuss.

Soon to be filling the space were representatives from all of the major players in Japan. At least, the ones Luna vi Britannia was interested in. Boiled down to the most basic level, this was nothing more than an exercise to rig the country in her favor and cement her control over it. Those that she did not care about would not be having a say, much of which were nobility that could do little more than blow a lot of hot air around. Unless she did something to materially damage their interests, they could all whine and complain until they turned blue, to no effect.

At least, that was the plan. The underlying intent was to get everybody that mattered together, face to face, and get them talking. Luna needed to mitigate internal conflict as much as possible in her new realm, and this was the easiest, if not the most elegant, way of making that happen.

Luna herself was not the first to arrive aboard the Hiryu, but she made it down to the observation deck before most. She took a quiet moment to look straight down through the floor. Directly beneath her boots was Tokyo Bay, the white lines of boat and ship wakes visible against the blue water. Just off to the right was Tokyo itself, the Britannian megastructure ringed by the ruins of a broken capital city that had once been the largest in the world. Its population had seen a net decline of millions since the invasion, although accurate figures were nowhere to be found. As the colonial administration under Clovis cared not a bit for the welfare of Tokyo's original inhabitants, conducting a census outside of the Britannian districts had not been worth the effort. That was something else she would have to pile onto the heap of projects to be done. One issue at a time.

She clenched her fists as she stared at her home on this world. Certain significant locations stood out to her, seeming larger than they should have from this distance. Ashford Academy, Babel Tower, the Omotesando mall, the space in front of the Chinese embassy that her former self had literally surfed a riot shield down, and others in rapid succession. She blinked, and for the faintest moment could see the horrifying light of Suzaku's FLEIJA devouring the city once again. Her heart skipped a beat.

Over ten million people had died in that second, and all her former self had cared about at the time was the life of a sister that ultimately escaped without a scratch. Luna tried not to visibly shudder as the weight of dreadful memories piled on. Milly and Rivalz had both been perilously close to the detonation, but Lelouch hadn't even found out about their survival until over a day later. He hadn't even bothered to look.

It almost hurt to face just how much of a monster she had been as Lelouch vi Britannia. Millions dead, betrayed, enslaved, and for what? Simple revenge? Sure, it had all worked out in the end; CC had done much to soothe her soul with the memories of the future it all bought that she brought back with her. Even if the argument could be made that it was all worth it, Luna was not the vengeance driven exile that had become the Demon Emperor. Not anymore. The conditions had changed so much that she felt more distant from her former self with every passing month.

Now, she looked down on Tokyo from her castle in the sky and felt...protective. This wasn't just some dot on a map, it was her home, and she never wanted to see it consumed by the fires of war ever again. Tokyo has been ravaged four times in her living memory. Granted, three of them had been in her past life, but the point still stood in her frame of reference. There would not be a fifth if she had anything to say about it.

"Amazing view, isn't it your highness?" A gruff Britannian voice asked her. Luna looked up, only now realizing that she had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she had not noticed ten more people come down onto the deck. Six of them were men dressed in sharp Britannian military uniforms. Her eyes caught on the stars the one in front of her had on his. She had known he would be here, but it was still the first time she had seen this man in person, in this life at least. She tried not to think about the time his alternate self had crossed paths with her former self for the last time.

"It is, General Dalton." She turned to meet his eyes. "It's why we're up here, and not down in the Viceroy's Palace; added perspective for people not used to having a say in the fate of nations. There's over twenty million people beneath us, and by the end of the day we'll have impacted them all, and many, many more."

Luna knew he was just sizing her up, trying to determine which end of the battlefield each would be on. She did the same, going over what she knew of the man. His arrival had been slightly delayed due to continuing operations in the middle east. Cornelia couldn't just dump the entire war on some replacement officer without at least a bit of spin up time. But now that he was here, along with the Glaston Knights, his adopted sons, things would get interesting.

"That's one way of looking at it." He said, eyes focused down onto the city below.

"It's the only way I can look at it." She said, glancing back up at him. "For you, general, this is the edge of civilization, a distant frontier thousands of kilometers from the heart of the empire. You have no connection to this place, save for Princess Cornelia's presence here, and the imperial flags flying over the capital.

To me, however, this is home. I grew up in Tokyo," She gestured toward the city below. "And I have seen how it truly is, for better or worse. Those are my people down there, and regardless of what opinions off in far away North America are, I care about them."

* * *

**1200 Hours, 15 September, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 3500m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**Ventral Observation Deck**

At 1200 sharp, they finally began. Despite the table being round, with equally spaced seating, there were three obvious groups that all somehow found ways to be distinct.

The Britannian Military, led by Princess Cornelia, and made up of her trusted officers and knights, more or less represented Pendragon at the table. While Cornelia had still not received any new orders, and had not asked for any, she was still the most closely aligned with the imperial government back in the mainland.

Clockwise from them were the Japanese military group, headed by General Tohdoh and his trusted officers, including the members of the pseudo disbanded Four Holy Swords. They represented the interests of the Imperial Japanese Army, and the wider Japanese population they had sworn to defend.

The final group at the table was led by Luna vi Britannia. They were an assorted mix of military personnel and civilians representing Luna's local interests on the home islands. Britannian, yet distinct from Cornelia's side. Included in that group were Countess Milly Ashford and Kaguya Sumeragi. Although, Kaguya in particular had little to do at this point. She and Kirihara still had their hands full consolidating the country's sakuradite operations under the newly formed Fuji Sakuradite Corporation. Even so, it would be beneficial for her to sit in.

Given Britannia's almost non existent history of cooperation with anybody that did not submit to imperial rule, willingly or not, it was probably the strangest meeting in living memory.

"We have a problem, and it's already apparent at this table. Take a look around, and notice how divided we are." Luna started. Nobody spoke, but they could not help but do as she told them. Their eyes roved around the circle, taking in the faces, uniforms, and suits. It looked like a neatly divided pie chart.

"As I see it," Luna continued after a pause. "All of us here have one set of common objectives. We may have different reasons for wanting them, but all benefit us.

First is the complete and total defeat of internal conflict within the Japanese home islands. Be that both from armed terrorist forces, and friction between our different military units." She noticed some of the looks on the faces of Cornelia's people. She bit back a few unfriendly comments before they could surface, and continued on.

"The second objective is economic in nature. We all know why the invasion happened: Honshu has the world's largest known sakuradite reserves. But Britannia seemingly forgot overnight that unlike most other Areas, Japan had a first rate, technologically advanced economy. The conditions that have existed since, islands of Britannian colonial prosperity surrounded by the decaying remains of old Japan, are not something that I will allow to continue. It is a travesty that both cripples the people of Japan, and at the same time weakens the empire. We must rebuild Japan, not continue sucking the remnants dry.

Third is our external role in the wider world. We face an immediate threat from the west in the form of the Chinese Federation. To the east, unfriendly Britannian factions are also a substantial concern. Both sides desire control of Japan, as in addition to the sakuradite, these islands are a natural gate to the Pacific. With them, Britannia can keep China contained in Asia. With them, the Federation becomes a true superpower, with the resources and reach to challenge imperial control of the Pacific, and eventually Area 7. It is very much in all of our best interests to prevent that."

The room processed that for a long minute, each party through the lens of their own perspective and interests. It was an all around awkward and uncomfortable situation.

"The first and second are solvable issues. The third is going to be more problematic." General Tohdoh said. "We have already proven that the economic situation in Japan and armed violence are closely linked. The measures you have already enacted as the Brtiannian Viceroy, along with assistance from IJA troops, is having a noticeable impact. With the Blood of the Samurai all but defeated, the only internal conflict we seriously need to worry about is that between ourselves."

Heads nodded in agreement. They had all seen the same reports. The combination of direct aid to the people and brutal counter terrorism campaign had been largely effective in defeating Japan's terrorist and insurgent groups, as well as drying up their recruiting pool. Less desperation meant less people ready to throw their lives away. The very presence of the IJA, with open support from the head of the colonial government, was giving the hopeless a reason to reconsider.

The problem now was that the IJA was openly deployed across the Japanese home islands that constituted Area 11 in parallel with imperial forces. No other imperial territory had ever experienced such a strange situation before. A native army, independent of imperial military control, yet not in open rebellion against the empire was not something Britannians knew how to process.

"Fortunately, we have a strategy to address that." Cornelia said. She did not know exactly how much of what they discussed and planned in private had already been disseminated out to those in the room, but she assumed little had, just to keep everybody on the same page.

"The joint mission that resulted in the destruction of the Blood of the Samurai, and the capture of their leader, was the beginning of a much larger cooperative mission. My initial reservations aside, I now agree that the best course forward is to work together for the common defense here in the east." Cornelia said, pausing for a moment.

"But if we're going to do that, I need to know just how good you really are." She continued, looking toward the Japanese officers. She focused in on Tohdoh, sizing up what was supposed to be the IJA's greatest warrior. A faint grin appeared on her face.

"What do you have in mind?" Tohdoh asked her.

All eyes at the table were on them. They went silent, awaiting her response. In her seat, Luna squirmed slightly at this development. She more than half expected Cornelia to challenge Tohdoh to some kind of single combat. That was the sort of thing that happened when you put two alphas on the same team. Fortunately, she had a more productive idea.

"We were already planning joint exercises and training, but why not go all the way?" She leaned forward, her grin transforming with predatory anticipation. "I propose we hold a real wargame. Your best division against mine. Let's find out what you're really made of."

"Live fire?" He asked in a perfectly serious voice. The room went quiet. Cornelia laughed.

"As much as I would like that, killing each other isn't going to make the empire more secure. Simunitions and lasers will have to suffice." She replied, sounding genuinely disappointed that she wouldn't get to face Tohdoh's best for real. Perhaps the two could find a way to get along after all. Although, Luna could tell they truly wanted to fight.

"Do you have enough training equipment for something of that scale?" Luna asked them.

"I doubt it." Jeremiah Gottwald said. "There's probably enough for a few battalions, but not two full strength divisions. Training exercises of that scale have never been done here before. Up until recently, the abundance of available threats have made it not necessary."

"I can help with that." Milly Ashford spoke up for the first time. She sounded less confident than she normally did, likely due to the present company. Luna picked up on it almost instantly, and saw how she unconsciously leaned closer to Rivalz, who was beside her looking over some papers.

It was a role reversal for the blonde that Luna had not seen in her since the fiasco with her biological parents. While she had plenty of interactions with nobles and royalty, at least technically, those were almost uniformly with people she had a personal connection with. She and Luna were as close as sisters, and Euphemia was catching up.

Cornelia and Tohdoh were in an entirely different league. They were not her friends, or subordinates, or anything else of the sort. It bothered her at some fundamental level being around truly powerful people that she had no real measure of influence over. She was willing to face that just by being here, but Luna decided to step in and help her.

"Ashford Heavy Industries is manufacturing and supplying arms to both the IJA and various homeland buyers. I'm sure producing sims and laser gear is well within their capabilities." Luna said.

Milly nodded, a silent thank you in her eyes. The blonde continued where the viceroy left off. She looked

"As soon as you know the details, we can fill the order faster and cheaper than any supplier in North America." She said. To her relief, they both nodded and began to talk specifics.

Luna zoned out for a bit as the meeting went on. She had already accomplished her primary objective by bringing everybody together in one room. Cornelia and her people were talking to Tohdoh and his people, and the more they did, the harder it would be to turn around and start shooting at each other.

Compared to some of the stunts Lelouch had pulled with dubious applications of Geass, this was a very mild way of getting the job done. No torpedoes into methane hydrate deposits or prerecorded predictive conversations today. She thought about that for a minute, and began to reflect inwardly.

She realized, looking down toward Tokyo, just how much she had changed in this new life; how different from Lelouch vi Britannia she had really become. Shinjuku, in another world, in another life, came back into focus, and it suddenly hit her just how insane the whole rise of Zero had been from the perspective of an outsider. It all came down to Geass in the end.

The Geass of Absolute Obedience had made all of this possible. She literally would not be here today if CC had not given the power to her former self in a past life. That was not something the human mind was made to process, and it felt strange to do so. But she kept going back to that fact.

All of the wild ride that had been Zero and the Black Knights could be directly attributed to it. From the highest highs to the soul crushing lows, Geass had always been there. A tool, a crutch, a way to cheat fate and make the world into putty.

But Luna vi Britannia had no Geass, having lost it somewhere along the unusual process in which she acquired her father's Code. She scoffed at the image that left her with. Father was the wrong word to describe Charles zi Britannia.

Without it, of course she had changed. Had it been Lelouch vi Britannia, Zero, at this table, everyone in attendance would have long since been compelled to work together in perfect harmony; the struggles of diplomacy and human interaction rendered insignificant before the Power of the King.

Losing it, she realized, had done her a lot of good. Much of what she had accomplished in the years since being merged into this world was of the more subtle sort. No fake gas bombs or micromanaged battles against suicidal odds. Not yet, at least. It had forced her to overcome Lelouch's worst tendency: to view people as mere pieces on the board. Designating his forces as chess pieces had been more than it appeared on the surface; it had been an almost literal representation of their intended roles in battle, and more darkly, how much their lives mattered to the masked man of miracles. Luna didn't have that personal luxury, and adapting to it made her value the human element in ways Lelouch never could.

Even so, her love of chess had not diminished in the slightest. Going down the same route Lelouch had before his first fateful encounter with CC had been even easier than before. This time, she had the experience of having faced the world and won. What challenge were a few stuck up nobles compared to that? She crushed them with a regularity that left jaws on the floor, and accumulated vast wealth in the process, far more than the last time around.

But having to play them at all was a constant reminder that she couldn't just take what she wanted with a few words anymore. Anything she wanted in this world, she was going to have to work for, even if the effort level was trivial. Code may be outright magic, but it wasn't quite the cheat console that Geass had been.

Her inner train of thought paused for a minute as she listened back in to what was happening around her. Milly had finally overcome her inhibitions, and was now looking a lot more like her usual self as she negotiated with both militaries about orders for a wide variety of lethal and non lethal hardware.

Beside her, Rivalz was dutifully taking notes for his boss. Luna smiled seeing them together like that. He seemed to be recovering, or at least coping well, with his traumatic stay at Babel Tower. Having Milly finally open her eyes to just how insanely in love he was certainly helped. Nothing beat haunting trauma like having your one true wish made real, and getting to live it every day. She knew that from experience.

Zero Requiem had worked in the end, and instead of burning in eternal hellfire for all of the monstrous things that led to that moment, here she was living another life with her one true love. She had gotten her wish, save the First World, as well as some manner of selfish justice by protecting the people so brutally wronged by Lelouch vi Britannia. She may not have had centuries to figure out her desires, being either 25 or 35 depending on how she chose to count the years, but she still knew it was so in her heart.

For that matter, so had CC. Her beloved witch had spent centuries searching for a way to die permanently; the ages of temporal isolation clawing at her sanity all the way. But now, she would never be alone again.

Love wasn't quite the right word for what they had. The word was far too weak to accurately explain their bond. Then again, their experience was almost completely outside the scope of human interaction, so she couldn't blame any of the languages she knew for failing in that regard.

Luna's thoughts once again returned to the room around her as Kusakabe came up in the discussion. Before she could get a word in, Tohdoh beat her to it.

"The traitor is being held in the Hiryu's brig, not that far away from us, in fact." Tohdoh told Cornelia.

"I want him." She said in a tone dripping with 'don't fuck with me on this'. "He orchestrated the murder of my brother, a prince of the realm. I demand that he be subject to the maximum punishment I can imagine. He deserves nothing less."

She made no mention of Luna's involvement in that attack. Perhaps she was still trying to bury the knowledge that her sister had also been shot to pieces in that ambush in some deep, dark corner of her mind. Without knowing about Code, or Luna's possession of it, Cornelia believed that Luna had come within millimeters of death. That surely scared the hell out of her, and made her rage against the man all the more incendiary.

"Kusakabe will face a court martial for his actions. Do remember, that his very long list of crimes began with him going AWOL over six years ago. He was never discharged from service, or otherwise relieved of his duties. Instead, he abandoned his country in its darkest days. He will be made to answer for that." Tohdoh told her with a rock solid air of certainty.

"A bloody court martial? For everything he's done?" Cornelia was struggling to contain her fury at the thought. She likely wanted to flay the flesh off his bones with a rusty butter knife and bask in the symphony of his dying screams. It was an easy sight to imagine for anyone that knew her.

"No." Luna spoke up for the first time in over ten minutes. "Not everything." Both sides turned to her, suddenly eager to hear what she had to say.

"These do not have to be mutually exclusive events. Let Kusakabe have his court martial, he's more than earned it. As there's no question that he will be convicted on virtually all charges, sentence him to face Britannian justice at Cornelia's hand. That's definitely worse than death from his point of view, so we all get what we want.

Besides, it's a perfect opportunity to put a positive media spin on our new state of affairs. Let's use Kusakabe to further the cause of cooperation and unity here in Japan, and rub it in his face until the moment his heart stops beating." She explained.

"He's going to hate that, isn't he?" Cornelia asked.

"Every last second of it. Make him suffer." Luna said.

"That's a reasonable proposal. I'm willing to agree to it." Tohdoh told them.

"Yes." Cornelia looked slightly disappointed, no doubt because her fantasies for Kusakabe's brutal death were going to be delayed their entry into historical record. But, she must have realized, she was still going to get to have him in the end. "I accept."

* * *

**1830 Hours, 15 September, 2017 ATB**

**IJAS **_**Hiryu**_**, 3500m above Tokyo Bay, Area 11**

**Ventral Observation Deck**

By the time the conference ended six hours later, Luna felt a rare sense of accomplishment for having done something new. She had brought both sides together, in one room, and got them talking to each other without having to engage in any serious manipulation. Now that she had a few minutes to reflect while they did the job for her, it was an odd change of pace.

In her previous life, those in attendance would have been blackmailed, coerced, or outright compelled via Geass to force them to comply with whatever the plan had in store for them. Now, they had largely done it all on their own, with only a bit of relatively gentle nudging in the right direction.

Being diplomatic wasn't something Luna had very much experience with, even accounting for the wild ride of both lives. Dealing with Britannian nobility was almost always a transactional affair. Give and take, buy and sell, be it assets, information, or influence, there was always something to be gained or lost with each move. Doing it this way felt different, but good in a way she wasn't used to.

She looked around the observation deck, seeing that the centralized meeting had now broken up into several smaller ones discussing a range of topics. Officers from both militaries were talking. Jeremiah, Tohdoh, and Dalton were off to a side having their own conversation. On the other side of the space, Milly had finally broken out of her shell, and was animatedly going through a sales pitch for new AHI manufactured armored vehicles to Cornelia, who had yet to shoot down the proposal.

This was the sort of leadership that she had been lacking throughout her existence. While she, like Lelouch before her, had a natural talent for being a dictator, treating the world and the people in it like a multi dimensional chess board led to serious consequences all too often. A few bad memories flashed through her conscious mind: The surprised look in Euphemia's eyes as she fell backwards with a new hole in her chest, Kallen's capture in China, Rolo's unmarked grave on Shikinejima.

Even though they were literally a lifetime ago, those moments still haunted her. That was the price of failure: when people were nothing more than pieces on a board, the few that were not always ended up suffering for it.

"Wondering how we ended up here?" A familiar voice spoke from beside her. She had been staring through the floor, literally, as her internal thoughts progressed, and had not even noticed General Tohdoh approach.

"Don't you?" She asked back, not bothering to come up with an alternative topic for her now halted train of thought.

"Too often." He said, "Narita should have been our end, would have been our end, had you not been there to save us."

"Is that the one that always comes back to you?" She asked. He nodded.

"I often dream about the invasion, rarely as nightmares though. Most are little visions of fates that could have been. Narita is one of the most common. In some, I escape as the day is lost. In others I am the last man to die, defending the final hill, in the final battle, as the last witness to the death of Japan." Tohdoh told her.

"Do you ever win?" Luna asked, now curious.

"No." He said bluntly. "Whether I live or die, I have never dreamt of victory on that mountain. Britannia always defeats us. The details may change, but not the result."

Luna bit back her immediate response before she could even think of speaking it aloud. Of course, the JSDF lost every rendition of the battle of Narita his unconscious mind could devise, because it had truly been a hopeless last stand action. They had barely even seen knightmare frames, much less trained to fight them. Without the novel tactics she provided them, as well as the Glasgows stolen from Hiroshima, they had no chance of defeating a superior force led by a Knight of Rounds.

Still, even as influential as she had been at the time, it had been the Japanese that did the fighting and the dying that day. Saying any of what she was thinking would only come out as undermining their actions that day.

"What about the others?" She asked.

"Iwakuni." Tohdoh said. "The day it began. The only real nightmare I have is of the door to the hangar where our tanks were parked. Sometimes the Britannians kill us before we reach the door, or the grenade fails to open it, but you never save us from the Glasgows. It hurts me, watching them die, even as a tormented dream."

Luna remembered that, the memory coming back to her as if it had been only yesterday. Nothing she had done that day would have worked even a year later. With a monopoly on the technology, anti knightmare combat tactics weren't even on the empire's to-do list when the battle for Iwakuni was fought. She had only been able to save Tohdoh because she knew how to kill Glasgows and the enemy didn't.

"Good thing a princess in stolen armor showed up at the right moment, even if it wasn't very shiny." She said, and got a genuine smile out of the man, but there was a look of uncertainty on the general's face, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. A few moments passed before she asked.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He said, a bit too quickly. Luna could tell in a nanosecond that it wasn't actually nothing. Still, given the choice she chose not to press him on it.

Little did she know that at that moment Tohdoh was fixated on another memory from earlier on the same day. Something happened to her that morning, something that he could not explain. Ten year old Luna picked up a rifle. A novice fired the first shot, yet an expert fired the last. How much of their salvation could be owed to whatever occurred inside that fateful magazine?


	5. For Want of a Slice

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.

AN: So I finally got around to watching the 3 recap/retcon movies, and the result was...surprising. I liked most of the changes, and the new scenes were really good. However, WAY too much was cut to fit the series into 3 movies. It was painful at times, and character development suffered, at least for the ones that didn't get the axe at the neck. I'd say they're definitely worse than the original in most respects. The most redeeming quality is that it all leads to the ending of Resurrection, which, while not as technically brilliant as the ending of R2, was as close to perfect as I could ask for.

* * *

**2000 Hours, 20 September, 2017 ATB**

**Ashford Academy, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11**

Shirley Fenette plopped down on her bed face first in what would have been a dramatic fashion, had anyone been there to see her. She was exhausted at the end of another long, tough day. She rolled over onto her back before she let herself pass out in that pose. It wouldn't do to have her room mate come back to find her face down on the bed, still in her uniform, splayed out like the centerpiece of a crime scene.

Staring up at the ceiling, she took a deep breath, finding a moment of calm in the whirlwind her life had become in recent months. She had done her best to bottle it up, but she was still reeling from the pace of change thrown her way.

The Ashford Academy Student Council, which had for over two years comprised her best friends, had been scattered. Milly had gone off to start her huge company, taking Rivalz along as her ever faithful secretary, now especially loving boyfriend. Shirley was still secretly jealous. Not about Rivalz specifically, but she had seen up close and personal how insanely devoted and loyal he was to her former president. She would have been glad to perform ritual sacrifices if it would get her a guy that good.

Clare, once known as the Ice Princess of Ashford to the male student population, had in fact been a real princess in some kind of exile for years, and was now literally running the country. That still hadn't fully sunk in yet.

That, combined with all of the other larger than life stuff that had happened in the last year left Shirley feeling in a bit of a daze. What was that term she had heard for it once, where a person suffers an overload of extraordinary events to the point that they have trouble grasping their magnitude? Shock saturation? 'Oh, she's actually a princess and just took over the government with a secret army. OK, so what's for lunch?'

Shirley couldn't blame them for leaving her behind at school. The one thing being a princess or a countess did not provide, was an abundance of spare time. They had an enormous amount of important stuff to do that didn't include budgeting time to spend with a commoner student athlete. She knew it wasn't that simple; either Milly or Luna would probably find a way to make some time for her if she asked, but she didn't want to burden them.

She had no special skills that put her on the same level as those two. Sure, she could certainly out swim or out run either of them, but that wouldn't make her any more helpful.

In the time since they left, she had taken up running with the school's track club. It didn't take her long to rise to the top five, with her powerful heart and formidable lower body strength from years of swimming. She was at the point where she was actually thinking of taking up the offer to ditch the new student council and join the track team officially.

Running had also brought her to make some new friends. Princess Euphemia and Suzaku were still a regular sight at the school, although no longer on the council due to increased responsibilities. Shirley found herself joining them on the track. The pair always ran together, either on the school's actual track, or laps around the building the ASEEC used.

Shirley had been a bit uncomfortable doing the latter for the first time, as she wasn't a soldier, employee, or some sort of government official. Euphie saw right through her worries and sorted that out in a hurry.

After a few weeks, Shirley found herself in the strange position of voluntarily getting out of bed at 0430 to go do morning PT with the unit's military personnel. She loved the challenge of it, having to push herself to keep up with trained soldiers. She had always loved athletics, but now it began to fill in some of the void left by the shake up after Prince Clovis's death.

She hadn't been too close to Suzaku or Euphemia before, but now she was getting there, and they seemed happy enough to have her around. Two was less than three, but it was still better than where she had been six weeks earlier.

As Shirley lay there on the dorm bed, body sore and mind drained, she smiled at the ceiling. She still missed the happy, almost care free school days of her life before with the old student council, and would for a while longer. What she dearly missed was the power and influence of Milly Ashford.

She had never fully appreciated it while it was around, so pervasive and ever present was the blonde's presence. While she still had friends and contacts in some very high places, none of them were part of the student body. She was now in the driver seat for her last year at the school, success or failure entirely in her own hands. That was one part liberating, two parts terrifying. All the more so because Ashford had recently acquired a controversial new teacher, and she had signed up for his class.

* * *

**0800 Hours, 21 September, 2017 ATB**

**Ashford Academy, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11**

Kaname Ohgi felt a strange mix of deja vu and FUD coursing through him as the operation start time grew nearer. By 'operation start time', he had to remind himself, he meant the start of the school day. It had been over eight years since he had acted as a teacher in any official capacity. For all of that time, his life had been consumed by trying to keep his friends and allies alive in a deadly game of asymmetric warfare against the might of Britannia's armies.

The Shinjuku breakout notwithstanding, he had done a damn good job of it. Their group had lost a lot of people to make that desperate last ditch plan work, but as his mind tried to justify the move by clinging to any scrap of good news it could find, the core members had made it out. Cold and callous it may be, but the deaths of relative strangers hurt a whole lot less than those with closer, longer ties.

But all of that was in the ancient past now, at least in terms of how it felt. His seven years of somewhat civilized armed resistance against the empire had somehow ended up earning him the unique opportunity to be the first Japanese teacher in a Britannian private school.

Why this was actually real life, and not some crazy fever dream, he could not nail down. He still half expected to wake up from it every once in a while.

When he and Kallen accepted Luna vi Britannia's offer, the resistance group they led were all given choices of where to go and what to do that would be acceptable to the princess. It sounded like a rough deal until they got to see the specifics, at which point they unanimously realized they were the luckiest bunch to ever raise their weapons against Britannia.

Kallen had gone off to pilot an experimental knightmare frame for Ashford Heavy Industries, to her endless delight. The princess had seen her talent, and wanted to get the most out of it. Ohgi had secretly feared that despite what had been said, she would just throw Kallen at her enemies like a rampaging berserker. Now, not only was his friend safer than she had been in years, but she had access to far better weapons and a real support structure. Gone were the days of her rolling into battle at the controls of an amateurly maintained outdated machine.

Tamaki and Inoue were going to open an izakaya together in Shinjuku as part of a local reconstruction project, although as the latter frequently pointed out, they were in business together, not in bed together. Ohgi would never forget the look on Tamaki's face when actual royalty promised to stop by when they opened up.

Meanwhile, Nakata had enlisted in the IJA, and was up in Hokkaido at accelerated basic training for recruits with prior combat experience, which were rather common in modern Japan. He still had plenty of fight in him, and jumped at the chance to try his hand at being a trigger puller in a real army. He wasn't a fanatic, or particularly bloodthirsty, but he was the only one of the group that truly preferred life as a resistance fighter. He would probably make a good soldier.

Sugiyama, Minami, and Yoshida had also opted to join the IJA as a part of Luna's deal, however Nakata had been the only one to go infantry. Given the choice, as they all had been, Minami and Sugiyama had opted for the army's air wing, and both were aboard the _Hiryu _for their training to join the huge airship's crew. Yoshida had chosen armor, instead of going along with the rest. He was learning everything there was to know about the Type 14 MBT at the IJA's Narita base, which was now significantly more active as the largest established base on Honshu.

As for Ohgi himself, he requested a posting straight to depths of hell. At least, that was what it was assumed it would be for him, surrounded by still somewhat hostile Britannian kids at a private academy for the rather well off in imperial society. Not the true upper crust, but not that far beneath it. Thus, Ohgi found himself in the semi impossible position of trying to run the first Japanese language class in a Britannian school.

Unfortunately for him, there was little to go on in the way of precedent. The only real source of Britannian schooling for languages not of European origin was their military and intelligence agencies. He had no access to those, not that it would have mattered since almost everyone attending those courses were military officers or intelligence analysts, not young students.

Still, he was going to give it his best shot. After all, didn't Princess Luna, their new imperial overlord, say she wanted to build bridges, not demolish them? At least more of the former than the latter. Ohgi knew this was going to be an uphill fight, but how hard could it really be to teach kana and some basic vocabulary? His first iteration of this was going to be as close to fail proof as he could possibly make it. Successful students were happy students, and that's what he needed on this first run.

* * *

**0930 Hours, 23 September, 2017 ATB**

**AHI R&D Complex, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11**

Kallen Kouzuki turned the last corner back to the knightmare bay where her Guren Nishiki was docked. To say it was "hers" was a bit misleading, but she liked to think of it that way. In actuality, the knightmare frame itself was owned by Ashford Heavy Industries, of which its creator was an employee. Still, Kallen was a critical component of the whole weapons system, given how much effort had been put into optimizing it for her use.

Normally, there was little activity around the crimson machine, aside from general maintenance efforts. This time, however, the Guren was engulfed in a swarm of technicians and engineers. Even at a glance, she could tell that they were doing something not insignificant to it. A quick scan, and Kallen found the one person she suddenly wanted to see there: Rakshata Chawla.

The Indian woman was quite easy to pick out of the crowd, given the contrast between her dark skin and pale blonde hair. That, and the long pipe she always carried, even if it wasn't lit. She would know everything about what was in progress, since nobody would dare open up the Guren without her approval.

"Ah, Kallen, I was hoping you would join us." She noticed her approach.

"What's going on?"

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a super power?." She asked, twirling her pipe.

"Super powers?" Kallen asked. "What, like some kind of magical girl?"

"Hmm…" Rakshata looked as if she was contemplating something. "Kallen, what do you know of my background?"

"Not much." She admitted. "Only that you're some kind of genius scientist." That got a hrumpf out of her, as if being called a genius was somehow sub par.

"Before I tried my hand at developing knightmare frames, I was fascinated by the field of medical cybernetics. Still am, really. What few, even today, realize is just how much knowledge of that field can be applied to knightmare frames." Rakshata explained. She took a pull on her unlit pipe, wishing Her Bitchiness Countess Ashford hadn't been so insistent on enforcing a smoking ban. Tyrant of a woman. She continued.

"In the case of cutting edge prosthetic limbs, the recipient controls their new appendage by way of a direct link to the existing biological nervous system, as well as a brain wave interface, to make it feel as natural as if they had been born with it. That technology took decades to develop for medical use, but thus far nobody has attempted to militarize it."

"Until now?" Kallen finished for her, wondering where this was going. Did she have some plan to make cyborg soldiers or something crazy like that? Rakshata grinned at her.

"Did you know, Kallen, that the average human reaction time to external stimuli is between 15 to 25 milliseconds? Electrical signals actually move quite slowly through the body's biological wiring. You're a bit faster, that was easily determined from data collected by the Guren. Now imagine being twice as fast, or perhaps even more."

"Faster reaction time?"

"Yes. Let's assume for a moment that both you and some arbitrary opponent think at the same speed. Let's also assume that you're in similar machines. Now imagine that you can execute commands twice as fast as he can; that you could be launching an attack or evading a strike before the signals even reach his muscles."

"That sounds like a super power. At least in combat." Kallen admitted.

"Mmm Hmm. Now, as we're busy talking about it, I'm having the Guren upgraded to be able to do it. It's going to take a lot of calibration, but ideally, you'll be able to move the Guren's body faster than your own." She explained.

"How's that going to work?" Kallen was now genuinely intrigued by what she was hearing.

"With the new setup, the Guren will read your brain waves and electrical responses at the source as they are generated. The system will then translate them into commands for the Guren's OS, and execute faster than the same signal can make it from your head to your fingers. The lag between thought and action will be reduced so far that the human brain can barely register it.

How it will feel in practice is anybody's guess. Perhaps like some kind of super speed, or maybe you'll feel normal, and the rest of the world will feel slower. It's hard to say, since this technology has never been applied to a knightmare frame before."

"Lucky me." Kallen muttered at the idea of being Rakshata's guinea pig.

"Lucky you indeed, once we get the system calibrated and the predictive algorithms attuned to you. Now let's get you suited up."

Five minutes later, Kallen was looking at a brand new pilot suit. It was externally similar to the one she had been wearing, but her eyes quickly spotted some subtle differences. Getting into the new version introduced a few more.

This new pilot suit was still a zip up one piece design, but she was immediately surprised by it. Despite weighing more than the previous model, it felt lighter. Actually, it felt better all around her body than her old one did. The internal layer matched temperature with her skin in seconds, after which she could barely feel it. Extra support and padding in key areas was also immediately noticeable.

"It should be a perfect fit." Rakshata told her. Kallen figured she was probably heavily involved in the design of these suits in addition to the knightmare frames themselves.

"How did you manage to make it feel better than my old suit?" She asked the scientist.

"The short version is that we modified the design after extensive review of a combination of Guren's cockpit data and microscopic wear and pressure analysis of the previous model. User comfort was a priority, but as you well know, there wasn't a whole lot we had to do on that front. No, the real improvements are the ones you can't see or feel. What you were wearing before was effectively just an inert prototype. This is the real one, which is a test of the less advanced version of the technology."

"Wait, there's more than one version of this system?" Kallen asked, now wondering just what exactly she was being volunteered for. Rakshata nodded as she played with her pipe.

"Think about the Guren as compared to the Gekka." Rakshata said. "I designed both of them, and they share many common elements, but the Guren is special; you could never mass produce that level of quality. The same concept applies here.

There are two versions that we will be testing simultaneously, which will provide the best comparison between each system's performance and what the Guren's manual controls receive.

The first, and most powerful, is a brain interface that reads and interprets your brain waves to send commands before the electrical signals to move your body even fully form. The high performance prototype, if you will.

Your new suit houses components of the second prototype. This version reads and interprets the electrical signals in your brain stem, and sends commands to the OS before the signals even reach your muscles. It's not as fast as the first version, but we may be able to mass produce it as there's less individual variation in the human nervous and muscular systems than the brain."

Kallen listened as she went on for another half hour with technical details of her new interface system. She couldn't claim to understand more than a third of it, but if it worked as described it would be a revolution in combat. After all, superconducting sakuradite fibers were so much faster than human nerves it wasn't funny. The best part of this test project was more grounded to her: she would be spending far more time with the Guren than in the last few weeks. And so Kallen learned that some surprises could be good surprises.

* * *

**0120 Hours, 25 September, 2017 ATB**

**HMS **_**Deucalion**_**, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11**

With a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh, Cornelia li Britannia rested her head in her hands. It was well after midnight in Tokyo, yet she clearly hadn't had enough of this frustrating exercise. She was still wearing most of her uniform, albeit unbuttoned, and ran a hand through her frazzled hair as she sat up straight again.

Although she showed none of it at the time, being inside that massive ship, _Hiryu_, had knocked something loose in her confidence. Even now, in her quarters aboard the _Deucalion_, she could not shake just how overly impressive the whole thing had been. It wasn't just big, it was a technological leap forward that put a timer on warfare as she had grown up to know it. What were battery powered airships or land armies before such a monster of the sky that never needed to rest?

To take her mind off it, she had dived head first into other matters that all required some measure of her attention. One, however, inevitably rose to the top and held it against all challengers: her conversation with Luna atop the palace gardens. She had challenged her to find a ghost, a person that had used the chaos of the Emblem of Blood to fake their own death and assert dominance over a secret society. A secret society which, if her sister was to be believed, was the death of Empress Marianne.

Thus, she had spent the last fourteen hours digging through everything she could find on the subject, from public knowledge, to actual secrets, searching for a specific needle in a bombed out needle factory. All she had to show for it at this early hour was frustration and exhaustion. Suddenly, a heavenly scent reached her nose, and she perked up.

"Coffee?" Her favorite one man relief force appeared, armed with two gently steaming mugs. He placed them down before her, and pulled up a chair. The princess grabbed the nearest one, brought it to her lips, and found the dark liquid to be just right.

"I love you, my perfect knight." She leaned over and rested her head on his right shoulder. In return, Guilford gathered up her hair and returned it to some measure of order behind her.

"What can I do to help?" He asked. Of course, he wished she would give it a rest for a few hours at least, but he knew she would not surrender. This was as much a battle as if the problem were shooting at them, and she would see it through.

"I've come up with thirty one names that could potentially be the one Luna spoke of." She told him.

"That many?"

"Indeed. Despite how recent it was, records of the time are far from accurate. Almost every action is told in contradicting accounts from multiple angles, and unraveling truth from propaganda or outright fiction is turning out to be a bloody mess."

"There has to be a way to narrow it down."

"Are there any with a direct connection to Empress Marianne, or His Majesty?"

"Twenty." She replied, staring at her own list. She was getting angry just looking at it. One of the people those names represented held the answers to a mystery that had defined her life. She wanted, no, she needed to know.

Suddenly, Cornelia felt the flame die out, and a wave of calm descend. Guilford had taken it upon himself to start combing her hair with his fingers, something he knew from experience always made her relax. In the next few moments, exhaustion caught up with her, and already resting her head on her knight, Cornelia drifted off.

"Rest." He whispered to her. Once he was sure she was out, Guilford carefully picked her up and carried her off to bed in the quarters they shared. He pulled a blanket up to her neck, gave her a peck on the forehead, and went back to her desk. Unlike his depleted princess, he still had a bit of energy left in reserve. Using that energy to review her work could very well find something a tired mind had missed.

At least, he would try his best to. There was nothing he would not do for Cornelia li Britannia. Guilford had long come to terms with the fact that the overpowering combination of love, loyalty, and endless devotion he felt for her would lead him down a tough road. He got to work with a tenacity that only a true knight could summon.

* * *

**1425 Hours, 28 September, 2017 ATB**

**Pendragon, Britannia**

"I think we've found her."

Marianne's head snapped up at those words. Well, it was actually Guinevere su Britannia's head, but that was splitting another woman's hairs. The former empress still missed her original body, even though Guinevere's form was in no way deficient. She would hate to have to fight with it though. Too many sexy curves and not enough hard muscle.

"CC?" She asked like a little girl on Christmas morning. Julius Kingsley grew a grin beneath his striking violet eye.

"Right in the heart of Area 11." He told her.

"Are you sure?"

"Can you think of any other mysterious woman with long green hair that would order from every pizzeria in Tokyo?" The grin became a smirk.

"You tracked her down with pizza? Really?" Marianne asked, the amusement clearly showing on her face. Sometimes, dumb luck resulted in rare moments like this.

"Coincidentally. That was not at all what I was trying to do, but it all just...sort of came together." He said, his face clearly telling that he thought it was just as crazy as it sounded.

"How, exactly, did you manage to pull this off?" Marianne asked.

"One of my agents stationed in the Area 11 colonial government building reported an unusual frequency of pizza deliveries passing through security. A closer inspection revealed that they were all going through one specific checkpoint that led toward the private elevator into the palace on the upper floors. I had him chat up one of the guards, and discovered it was due to a 'girl with green hair' that orders every day. The guards themselves know little about her, only that she lives there, and has ever since Luna took over." Kingsley reported.

"She's in the palace?" Marianne asked with a sudden jolt of dreadful anxiety. She already knew the answer, but she just wanted him to confirm it. Julius nodded.

"If she's living in the palace, then it's virtually guaranteed that she's had some form of contact with your daughter. Exactly what that may be, we could only speculate on at this point."

Marianne shuddered at the thought. It had been almost a decade since she had last seen CC in person. They had been close once. That was a given, since she had formed a contract with the witch, but it had gone farther than that at times. Especially once Charles began to lose interest in her, in favor of his new younger women. Those were good days, right up until they weren't.

CC had been on board with the plan in the beginning. However, cracks formed in their alliance rather quickly. The tension built for years, until one day, she went out for a slice and never came back. By abandoning the Geass Order, and their plan, she had thoroughly betrayed them in pursuit of her own selfish wish that would take who knows how many decades to realize. It was shortly after her disappearance that Marianne had chosen to make her move.

Luna wasn't supposed to get involved at this stage. At least Marianne certainly didn't want it to turn out this way. However, if that disloyal, selfish, backstabbing pizza obsessed bitch was planning to coerce her daughter into using her newfound resources to further endanger the cause, some hard choices had to be made. Marianne took a deep breath, unconsciously straightened her stolen back, and turned to her partner.

"Julius, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but if she's attempting to use my daughter's followers as a means of disrupting the plan, we need to stop her."

Marianne took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly, as the magnitude of what she was about to order sank in. She had to crush Luna's power buildup before it could be used to threaten Ragnarok, specifically her ability to seize control of the thought elevators when the time came.

She didn't even need to consult a map to know that the thought elevator at Kaminejima was now in a precarious position; it was well within range of Luna's forces. If she could deploy a large contingent on that island, taking it would be hellishly difficult given the proximity to her main base on Area 11. But how to prevent that without making the intent obvious?

"May I assume that you still don't want to take direct action against her?" The duke asked.

"That's right. I know you disagree, but please don't argue with me on that point."

"Alright, you win." He conceded.

"However," Marianne continued. "You still need to, at the very least, slow her down. Everything else is fair game." He gave her a halfhearted salute.

"Don't worry. I'll have them tearing each other apart in a week, two at most. If we're lucky, we may even be able to nab CC in the chaos."

"Don't bet on it." Marianne said, knowing just how she could be.

"Oh, I'm not, but it would be nice." They both smiled at the prospect of luck being on their side for once.

* * *

**1800 Hours, 28 September, 2017 ATB**

**Excelica Palace, Pendragon, Britannia**

Charles zi Britannia, arguably the most powerful man in human history, let out a slow breath as he scanned a map of his world spanning empire. The last year had not gone as he wished it would. Nowhere near it.

He was no fool, nor new to this game. He knew exactly what his rebellious spawn were up to. Schneizel and Guinevere had spent much of the last few years carving out their own power bases within the empire, both in the homeland and in far flung territories. He still held the advantage, both in loyal territory and forces, but for how long, he had to wonder.

In the old world, the great conquests of his most loyal daughter had not expanded without her. Progress in the middle east had stalled just north of Basra. The Germans had finally come to the aid of their MEF allies in force. An entire German army had materialized in the deserts, acting as 'advisers' and 'volunteers' with the MEF. And unlike the Arabs or Persians, the Germans could fight. Even with inferior knightmare frames, and still too reliant on relics of the old ways of war, they had stalled the Britannian advance out of Arabia at the very cradle of civilization. That alone was proof enough of their strength, and more ominously, was a harbinger that the sun was setting on the empire's rapid expansion. Now they would have to fight worthy foes for every kilometer gained.

Not that this surprised Charles. Europeans were the only true equals of Britannians, given their shared ancestry. He had hoped to weaken them by cutting off the supply of fossil fuels they depended on before their democratic governments gathered the will to fully commit to war beyond the scope of southern Spain. While Britannia had mostly succeeded in this goal, their victory was far from complete. The Germans in particular had wised up to the threat in the middle east faster than their French allies. Britannian forces in the region were starting to engage units more German than native, and they didn't break when threatened with Sutherlands and Gloucesters. Without Cornelia's leadership, it had become a bloody quagmire.

Of course, the reason for Cornelia's absence from that front was the utterly insane situation that had developed in the far east. Why, he wondered to himself, did east always lead to more problems? Britannia's conquest of Japan, and its subsequent transformation into Area 11, had been the bloodiest and most troublesome acquisitions in imperial history. Now, it was something of an open question as to whether or not Area 11 was in rebel hands or not.

Normally, discovering that his lost daughter was in fact alive after so many years presumed dead would be a cause for celebration. Instead, she had returned with a powerful army of Elevens, and declared herself ruler of the Area. The only reasons whether or not they were truly rebels was up for debate was that they had not declared independence, commerce and taxes were still flowing, and Cornelia had as of yet not taken any offensive action against them. However, the message she sent was clear: Luna vi Britannia ruled the east.

Charles grunted. He was supposed to be the sovereign of a third of the planet, and on the surface he was, yet he could see his would be heirs carving up his empire while his heart still beat. Even so, Britannia was still a nation of laws and traditions. None had yet crossed the line into open rebellion against the crown. They had bent and strained those rules and traditions, but not outright broken them.

But how to play this? It was a question that gnawed at him. Should he dig in, rally his loyal supporters, and try to crush the upstarts? Or should he pick a side? He had many children, but the choice was between the best. Guinevere, his first born daughter, Schneizel, his greatest son, or Luna, his most relentless. Any of them were capable of ruling the empire and more, but only one would ever do so.

Luna in particular fascinated him more than any other. Unlike Schneizel or Guinevere, she had suffered through a much harder life. Once thought dead in the invasion of Area 11, she had lost everything. But she endured, rising from nothing to lead an army of her own making, by her own will. It impressed him more than he had ever admitted to anyone, even his closest knights. To think that she could command such loyalty from a people that by all rights should hate everything Britannian. Yet they lined up in their hundreds and thousands to join her. It was madness, but the kind of madness that drew even the knowing moth to the flame.

His belief in survival of the fittest was not just trappings and propaganda. Luna was, by the very path that brought her to this day, the most accomplished of his children. However, out of all of them, she had the least loyalty to Britannia. Even Schneizel and Guinevere, the would be usurpers they were, had their wealth and power because of their positions within the empire. They both shared the same ambition to rule the empire for themselves, of that Charles would have bet his life. But Luna? What did his long lost daughter truly want?


End file.
